Wi-Fi disruption via unvalidated disassociation frames
Published Aug 16, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Improper frame validation in the Linux mwifiex driver allows adjacent attackers to disrupt Wi-Fi connectivity with spoofed management frames. The STA receive path processes deauthentication and disassociation frames whose BSSID differs from the connected AP, clears host-MLME authentication state, reports bogus events, and can reach WARN_ON(). Systems require mwifiex hardware in concurrent STA/AP mode with host MLME; repeated injection causes connection loss or a kernel panic when panic_on_warn is enabled.
Summary
What happened
Improper frame validation in the Linux mwifiex driver allows adjacent attackers to disrupt Wi-Fi connectivity with spoofed management frames. The STA receive path processes deauthentication and disassociation frames whose BSSID differs from the connected AP, clears host-MLME authentication state, reports bogus events, and can reach WARN_ON(). Systems require mwifiex hardware in concurrent STA/AP mode with host MLME; repeated injection causes connection loss or a kernel panic when panic_on_warn is enabled.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-38505
- Published
- Aug 16, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 16, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222 <3b602ddc0df723992721b0d286c90c9bdd755b34
- Affected versionversion=36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222 <52654cebaac23dae31a9c97ae0da5be649f1ab4d
- Affected versionversion=36995892c271cce5e2230bc165a06f109b117222 <a963819a121f5dd61e0b39934d8b5dec529da96a
- Affected versionversion=6.12
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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