CVE-2025-38505: wifi: mwifiex: discard erroneous disassoc frames on STA interface
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2025-38505 is a high (CVSS 7.1) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8.9% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 7.1, adjacent network); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 11 · Related 11Timeline
- 16-08-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 15-10-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mwifiex: discard erroneous disassoc frames on STA interface When operating in concurrent STA/AP mode with host MLME enabled, the firmware incorrectly sends disassociation frames to the STA interface when clients disconnect from the AP interface. This causes kernel warnings as the STA interface processes disconnect events that don't apply to it: [ 1303.240540] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 513 at net/wireless/mlme.c:141 cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211] [ 1303.250861] Modules linked in: 8021q garp stp mrp llc rfcomm bnep btnxpuart nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 onboard_us [ 1303.327651] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 513 Comm: kworker/u9:2 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1+ #3 PREEMPT [ 1303.335937] Hardware name: Toradex Verdin AM62 WB on Verdin Development Board (DT) [ 1303.343588] Workqueue: MWIFIEX_RX_WORK_QUEUE mwifiex_rx_work_queue [mwifiex] [ 1303.350856] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1303.357904] pc : cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211] [ 1303.364065] lr : cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x70/0xec [cfg80211] [ 1303.370221] sp : ffff800083053be0 [ 1303.373590] x29: ffff800083053be0 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000 [ 1303.380855] x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 00000000ffffffff x24: ffff000002c5b8ae [ 1303.388120] x23: ffff000002c5b884 x22: 0000000000000001 x21: 0000000000000008 [ 1303.395382] x20: ffff000002c5b8ae x19: ffff0000064dd408 x18: 0000000000000006 [ 1303.402646] x17: 3a36333a61623a30 x16: 32206d6f72662063 x15: ffff800080bfe048 [ 1303.409910] x14: ffff000003625300 x13: 0000000000000001 x12: 0000000000000000 [ 1303.417173] x11: 0000000000000002 x10: ffff000003958600 x9 : ffff000003625300 [ 1303.424434] x8 : ffff00003fd9ef40 x7 : ffff0000039fc280 x6 : 0000000000000002 [ 1303.431695] x5 : ffff0000038976d4 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000003186 [ 1303.438956] x2 : 000000004836ba20 x1 : 0000000000006986 x0 : 00000000d00479de [ 1303.446221] Call trace: [ 1303.448722] cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211] (P) [ 1303.454894] cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt+0x64/0xf8 [cfg80211] [ 1303.460362] mwifiex_process_mgmt_packet+0x1ec/0x460 [mwifiex] [ 1303.466380] mwifiex_process_sta_rx_packet+0x1bc/0x2a0 [mwifiex] [ 1303.472573] mwifiex_handle_rx_packet+0xb4/0x13c [mwifiex] [ 1303.478243] mwifiex_rx_work_queue+0x158/0x198 [mwifiex] [ 1303.483734] process_one_work+0x14c/0x28c [ 1303.487845] worker_thread+0x2cc/0x3d4 [ 1303.491680] kthread+0x12c/0x208 [ 1303.495014] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 Add validation in the STA receive path to verify that disassoc/deauth frames originate from the connected AP. Frames that fail this check are discarded early, preventing them from reaching the MLME layer and triggering WARN_ON(). This filtering logic is similar with that used in the ieee80211_rx_mgmt_disassoc() function in mac80211, which drops disassoc frames that don't match the current BSSID (!ether_addr_equal(mgmt->bssid, sdata->vif.cfg.ap_addr)), ensuring only relevant frames are processed. Tested on: - 8997 with FW 16.68.1.p197
CVSS metrics
5 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated7.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HDiffers
- NVDNIST5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HDiffers
EPSS trend
Probability
0.19%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
9%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Increase +0.01 pp
From 0.18% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogsNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.
Not in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeNo weakness data has been published for this record.
Affected systems
Known conditions: adjacent network, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu92 products
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.13All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ 36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222, < a963819a121f5dd61e0b39934d8b5dec529da96a | ≥ 36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222, < 52654cebaac23dae31a9c97ae0da5be649f1ab4d | ≥ 36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222, < 3b602ddc0df723992721b0d286c90c9bdd755b34 | 6.12
- linux_kernel≥ 6.12, < 6.12.39 | ≥ 6.13, < 6.15.7 | 6.16:rc1 | 6.16:rc2 | 6.16:rc3 | 6.16:rc4 | 6.16:rc5
Debian1 product
- linux< 6.12.41-1 | < 6.16.3-1
3 vendors · 95 products