CVE-2025-40098 ALSA: hda: cs35l41: Fix NULL pointer dereference in cs35l41_get_acpi_mute_state()
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's CS35L41 audio driver can cause a system crash, requiring a kernel patch to prevent denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-40098?
CVE-2025-40098 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Oct 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:
ALSA: hda: cs35l41: Fix NULL pointer dereference in cs35l41_get_acpi_mute_state()
Return value of a function acpi_evaluate_dsm() is dereferenced without checking for NULL, but it is usually checked for this function.
acpi_evaluate_dsm() may return NULL, when acpi_evaluate_object() returns acpi_status other than ACPI_SUCCESS, so add a check to prevent the crach.
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40098?
How do I fix CVE-2025-40098?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-40098 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40098 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-40098, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40098, GHSA-gjqw-7pjf-8pfr, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-40098, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-40098, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40098.