# CVE-2025-71094: net: usb: asix: validate PHY address before use

> A malicious USB device can trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service by providing an invalid PHY address to the ASIX driver.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71094, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71094, GHSA-fpj9-h5cm-gw64, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71094, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-71094, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71094, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71094, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71094

## What is CVE-2025-71094?

CVE-2025-71094 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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:

net: usb: asix: validate PHY address before use

The ASIX driver reads the PHY address from the USB device via
asix_read_phy_addr(). A malicious or faulty device can return an
invalid address (>= PHY_MAX_ADDR), which causes a warning in
mdiobus_get_phy():

  addr 207 out of range
  WARNING: drivers/net/phy/mdio_bus.c:76

Validate the PHY address in asix_read_phy_addr() and remove the
now-redundant check in ax88172a.c.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71094?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-71094?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-71094 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71094 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-71094 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-71094 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 Jan 2026. 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-2025-71094 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2025-71094/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71094/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71094
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71094
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71094

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71094/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.