CVE-2025-38604 wifi: rtl818x: Kill URBs before clearing tx status queue
A race condition in the rtl8187 WiFi driver causes a kernel NULL pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-38604?
CVE-2025-38604 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 19 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: rtl818x: Kill URBs before clearing tx status queue
In rtl8187_stop() move the call of usb_kill_anchored_urbs() before clearing b_tx_status.queue. This change prevents callbacks from using already freed skb due to anchor was not killed before freeing such skb.
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000080 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/7 Not tainted 6.15.0 #8 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe+0x21/0xc0 [mac80211] Call Trace: <IRQ> rtl8187_tx_cb+0x116/0x150 [rtl8187] __usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x9d/0x120 usb_giveback_urb_bh+0xbb/0x140 process_one_work+0x19b/0x3c0 bh_worker+0x1a7/0x210 tasklet_action+0x10/0x30 handle_softirqs+0xf0/0x340 __irq_exit_rcu+0xcd/0xf0 common_interrupt+0x85/0xa0 </IRQ>
Tested on RTL8187BvE device.
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38604?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38604?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38604 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38604 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as AZL-66449, AZL-73599, BELL-CVE-2025-38604, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38604, GHSA-vp7v-x8x5-fj5p, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38604 and 5 more.