CVE-2025-38116 (GCVE-0-2025-38116)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2025-07-03 08:35
Modified
2026-08-05 11:59
Severity ?
7.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath12k: fix uaf in ath12k_core_init() When the execution of ath12k_core_hw_group_assign() or ath12k_core_hw_group_create() fails, the registered notifier chain is not unregistered properly. Its memory is freed after rmmod, which may trigger to a use-after-free (UAF) issue if there is a subsequent access to this notifier chain. Fixes the issue by calling ath12k_core_panic_notifier_unregister() in failure cases. Call trace: notifier_chain_register+0x4c/0x1f0 (P) atomic_notifier_chain_register+0x38/0x68 ath12k_core_init+0x50/0x4e8 [ath12k] ath12k_pci_probe+0x5f8/0xc28 [ath12k] pci_device_probe+0xbc/0x1a8 really_probe+0xc8/0x3a0 __driver_probe_device+0x84/0x1b0 driver_probe_device+0x44/0x130 __driver_attach+0xcc/0x208 bus_for_each_dev+0x84/0x100 driver_attach+0x2c/0x40 bus_add_driver+0x130/0x260 driver_register+0x70/0x138 __pci_register_driver+0x68/0x80 ath12k_pci_init+0x30/0x68 [ath12k] ath12k_init+0x28/0x78 [ath12k] Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Version: 6f245ea0ec6c29b90c8fa4fdf6e178c646125d7e
Version: 6f245ea0ec6c29b90c8fa4fdf6e178c646125d7e
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "65e1b3404c211dcfaea02698539cdcd26647130f",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6f245ea0ec6c29b90c8fa4fdf6e178c646125d7e",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "f3fe49dbddd73f0155a8935af47cb63693069dbe",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6f245ea0ec6c29b90c8fa4fdf6e178c646125d7e",
              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.14"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.14",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.15.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.15.3",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.16",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.15.3",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.14",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.16",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.14",
                  "vulnerable": true
                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: ath12k: fix uaf in ath12k_core_init()\n\nWhen the execution of ath12k_core_hw_group_assign() or\nath12k_core_hw_group_create() fails, the registered notifier chain is not\nunregistered properly. Its memory is freed after rmmod, which may trigger\nto a use-after-free (UAF) issue if there is a subsequent access to this\nnotifier chain.\n\nFixes the issue by calling ath12k_core_panic_notifier_unregister() in\nfailure cases.\n\nCall trace:\n notifier_chain_register+0x4c/0x1f0 (P)\n atomic_notifier_chain_register+0x38/0x68\n ath12k_core_init+0x50/0x4e8 [ath12k]\n ath12k_pci_probe+0x5f8/0xc28 [ath12k]\n pci_device_probe+0xbc/0x1a8\n really_probe+0xc8/0x3a0\n __driver_probe_device+0x84/0x1b0\n driver_probe_device+0x44/0x130\n __driver_attach+0xcc/0x208\n bus_for_each_dev+0x84/0x100\n driver_attach+0x2c/0x40\n bus_add_driver+0x130/0x260\n driver_register+0x70/0x138\n __pci_register_driver+0x68/0x80\n ath12k_pci_init+0x30/0x68 [ath12k]\n ath12k_init+0x28/0x78 [ath12k]\n\nTested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3"
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 7.8,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "scenarios": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "AV:L - The dangling `notifier_block` is created solely in the ath12k PCI/AHB probe path, entered locally via `finit_module()`, a sysfs `bind` write, or unattended boot-time device probe, and the UAF is consumed by local `panic_notifier_list` traversal or an in-kernel panic. No over-the-air WiFi frame or remote peer data reaches `ath12k_core_init()`, which runs entirely before the radio is registered.\nAC:L - Once `ath12k_core_hw_group_assign()` or `ath12k_core_hw_group_create()` fails \u2014 deterministic on any machine whose ath12k amss.bin/board-2.bin is missing or mismatched, since `ath12k_mhi_start()` then fails on every probe \u2014 the freed `\u0026ab-\u003epanic_nb` is guaranteed to remain linked, with no race, timing window, or memory-layout condition to win, and repeated PCI bind/unbind plants additional dangling entries.\nPR:L - The vulnerable state is established by an unattended boot-time probe failure that requires no privileges at all; from there an ordinary unprivileged local user can reclaim the freed `struct ath12k_base` slab with sprayed data and have the stale entry walked or invoked, so no capability beyond a normal local account is needed to exploit it.\nUI:N - No action by any other user is required \u2014 the probe failure occurs automatically during boot or driver bind, and the subsequent notifier-chain traversal or panic dispatch happens without victim involvement.\nS:U - Both the freed object and the corrupted `panic_notifier_list` live in the kernel\u0027s own address space and security authority; no hypervisor, IOMMU, or sandbox boundary is crossed.\nC:H - `notifier_chain_register()` dereferences `(*nl)-\u003epriority` and `(*nl)-\u003enext` out of the freed `ath12k_base`, and `ath12k_core_panic_handler()` reads `ab-\u003ehif.ops` from it, so an attacker who reclaims the slab obtains a use-after-free read primitive over kernel memory and leaks kernel pointers.\nI:H - `rcu_assign_pointer(*nl, n)` in `notifier_chain_register()` writes a kernel pointer directly into the freed (and therefore attacker-reclaimable) allocation, and the panic path performs an indirect call through `nb-\u003enotifier_call` plus `ab-\u003ehif.ops-\u003epanic_handler` read from that same freed memory \u2014 a control-flow hijack primitive.\nA:H - The reported call trace is a kernel oops inside `notifier_chain_register()` on the stale entry, and any panic afterwards dereferences freed memory while dispatching the panic notifiers, crashing the machine and defeating kdump/crash reporting."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T11:59:40.578Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/65e1b3404c211dcfaea02698539cdcd26647130f"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f3fe49dbddd73f0155a8935af47cb63693069dbe"
        }
      ],
      "title": "wifi: ath12k: fix uaf in ath12k_core_init()",
      "x_generator": {
        "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2025-38116",
    "datePublished": "2025-07-03T08:35:24.413Z",
    "dateReserved": "2025-04-16T04:51:23.986Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T11:59:40.578Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}


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