CVE-2025-38420: wifi: carl9170: do not ping device which has failed to load firmware
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2025-38420 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10.9% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 53 · Related 48Timeline
- 25-07-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 11-05-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: carl9170: do not ping device which has failed to load firmware Syzkaller reports [1, 2] crashes caused by an attempts to ping the device which has failed to load firmware. Since such a device doesn't pass 'ieee80211_register_hw()', an internal workqueue managed by 'ieee80211_queue_work()' is not yet created and an attempt to queue work on it causes null-ptr-deref. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=9a4aec827829942045ff [2] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=0d8afba53e8fb2633217
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.21%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
11%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Increase +0.03 pp
From 0.18% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu146 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-156.166 | < 6.8.0-100.100
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-1092.99 | < 6.8.0-1046.49
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Debian2 products
- linux< 6.1.147-1 | < 6.12.35-1
- debian_linuxEOL11.0
Linux2 products
- linux≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 0140d3d37f0f1759d1fdedd854c7875a86e15f8d | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 8a3734a6f4c05fd24605148f21fb2066690d61b3 | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 527fad1ae32ffa2d4853a1425fe1c8dbb8c9744c | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < bfeede26e97ce4a15a0b961118de4a0e28c9907a | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 4e9ab5c48ad5153cc908dd29abad0cd2a92951e4 | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 301268dbaac8e9013719e162a000202eac8054be | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 11ef72b3312752c2ff92f3c1e64912be3228ed36 | ≥ e4a668c59080f862af3ecc28b359533027cbe434, < 15d25307692312cec4b57052da73387f91a2e870 | 2.6.38
- linux_kernel≥ 2.6.38, < 5.4.295 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.239 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.186 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.142 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.6.95 | ≥ 6.7, < 6.12.35 | ≥ 6.13, < 6.15.4 | 6.16:rc1 | 6.16:rc2
3 vendors · 150 products
