# CVE-2025-68205: ALSA: hda/hdmi: Fix breakage at probing nvhdmi-mcp driver

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's ALSA HDMI driver causes a system crash when probing the nvhdmi-mcp driver.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68205, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68205, GHSA-fp57-xr9h-hfc8, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68205

## What is CVE-2025-68205?

CVE-2025-68205 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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/hdmi: Fix breakage at probing nvhdmi-mcp driver

After restructuring and splitting the HDMI codec driver code, each
HDMI codec driver contains the own build_controls and build_pcms ops.
A copy-n-paste error put the wrong entries for nvhdmi-mcp driver; both
build_controls and build_pcms are swapped.  Unfortunately both
callbacks have the very same form, and the compiler didn't complain
it, either.  This resulted in a NULL dereference because the PCM
instance hasn't been initialized at calling the build_controls
callback.

Fix it by passing the proper entries.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68205?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68205?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68205 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68205 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68205 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68205 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68205 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68205/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68205/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68205
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68205
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68205

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68205/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.