CVE-2025-71229 wifi: rtw88: Fix alignment fault in rtw_core_enable_beacon()
A local attacker can cause a kernel crash in the rtw88 WiFi driver by triggering an alignment fault during beacon enablement.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-71229?
CVE-2025-71229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:
wifi: rtw88: Fix alignment fault in rtw_core_enable_beacon()
rtw_core_enable_beacon() reads 4 bytes from an address that is not a multiple of 4. This results in a crash on some systems.
Do 1 byte reads/writes instead.
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffff8000827e0522 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000021 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x21: alignment fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000021, ISS2 = 0x00000000 CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000005492000 [ffff8000827e0522] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=10000001021d9403, pud=10000001021da403, pmd=100000011061c403, pte=00780000f3200f13 Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000021 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: [...] rtw88_8822ce rtw88_8822c rtw88_pci rtw88_core [...] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 73 Comm: kworker/u32:2 Tainted: G W 6.17.9 #1-NixOS VOLUNTARY Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: FriendlyElec NanoPC-T6 LTS (DT) Workqueue: phy0 rtw_c2h_work [rtw88_core] pstate: 60400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : rtw_pci_read32+0x18/0x40 [rtw88_pci] lr : rtw_core_enable_beacon+0xe0/0x148 [rtw88_core] sp : ffff800080cc3ca0 x29: ffff800080cc3ca0 x28: ffff0001031fc240 x27: ffff000102100828 x26: ffffd2cb7c9b4088 x25: ffff0001031fc2c0 x24: ffff000112fdef00 x23: ffff000112fdef18 x22: ffff000111c29970 x21: 0000000000000001 x20: 0000000000000001 x19: ffff000111c22040 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffd2cb6507c090 x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000007f10 x1 : 0000000000000522 x0 : ffff8000827e0522 Call trace: rtw_pci_read32+0x18/0x40 [rtw88_pci] (P) rtw_hw_scan_chan_switch+0x124/0x1a8 [rtw88_core] rtw_fw_c2h_cmd_handle+0x254/0x290 [rtw88_core] rtw_c2h_work+0x50/0x98 [rtw88_core] process_one_work+0x178/0x3f8 worker_thread+0x208/0x418 kthread+0x120/0x220 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 Code: d28fe202 8b020000 f9524400 8b214000 (b9400000) ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71229?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-71229?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-71229 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71229 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-77948, BELL-CVE-2025-71229, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71229, GHSA-w94g-pmcx-r454, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71229, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71229 and 3 more.