CVE-2025-40156 PM / devfreq: mtk-cci: Fix potential error pointer dereference in probe()
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's MediaTek CCI devfreq driver can cause a system crash during device probing.
- 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-2025-40156?
CVE-2025-40156 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 12 Nov 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:
PM / devfreq: mtk-cci: Fix potential error pointer dereference in probe()
The drv->sram_reg pointer could be set to ERR_PTR(-EPROBE_DEFER) which would lead to a error pointer dereference. Use IS_ERR_OR_NULL() to check that the pointer is valid.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40156?
How do I fix CVE-2025-40156?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-40156 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40156 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-40156, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40156, GHSA-wc7p-8p5c-3rjg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-40156, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-40156, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40156.