# CVE-2025-71198: iio: imu: st_lsm6dsx: fix iio_chan_spec for sensors without event detection

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by configuring unsupported accelerometer wakeup events on specific ST sensors due to a null pointer dereference.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 4 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71198, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71198, GHSA-ph76-p2v9-4hmx, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71198, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71198, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71198, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71198, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71198

## What is CVE-2025-71198?

CVE-2025-71198 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 4 Feb 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:

iio: imu: st_lsm6dsx: fix iio_chan_spec for sensors without event detection

The st_lsm6dsx_acc_channels array of struct iio_chan_spec has a non-NULL
event_spec field, indicating support for IIO events. However, event
detection is not supported for all sensors, and if userspace tries to
configure accelerometer wakeup events on a sensor device that does not
support them (e.g. LSM6DS0), st_lsm6dsx_write_event() dereferences a NULL
pointer when trying to write to the wakeup register.
Define an additional struct iio_chan_spec array whose members have a NULL
event_spec field, and use this array instead of st_lsm6dsx_acc_channels for
sensors without event detection capability.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71198?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-71198?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-71198 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71198 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-71198 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-71198 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 4 Feb 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-2025-71198 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-2025-71198/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71198/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71198
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71198
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71198

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71198/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.