CVE-2025-38512

Traffic injection via unauthenticated A-MSDU flag

Published Aug 16, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026

A-MSDU spoofing in Linux kernel mesh Wi-Fi processing allows physically proximate attackers to inject and redirect network traffic. The mac80211 receive path accepts an unauthenticated A-MSDU-Present bit and can parse a standard MSDU as an aggregate instead of rejecting an RFC 1042 signature after the Mesh Control header. Exploitation requires radio range and an 802.11s mesh, enabling packet injection, traffic interception, route poisoning, or forwarding interruption.

CVSS severity7.8
High
EPSS probability0.23%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

A-MSDU spoofing in Linux kernel mesh Wi-Fi processing allows physically proximate attackers to inject and redirect network traffic. The mac80211 receive path accepts an unauthenticated A-MSDU-Present bit and can parse a standard MSDU as an aggregate instead of rejecting an RFC 1042 signature after the Mesh Control header. Exploitation requires radio range and an 802.11s mesh, enabling packet injection, traffic interception, route poisoning, or forwarding interruption.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-38512
Published
Aug 16, 2025
Updated
Aug 5, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
T1557
Attack vector
adjacent
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Aug 16, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=6.1.107 <6.1.146
  2. Affected versionversion=6.3
  3. Affected versionversion=79720743421753ff72bfa0d79976c534645b81c1 <e2c8a3c0388aef6bfc4aabfba07bc7dff16eea80
  4. Affected versionversion=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <6e3b09402cc6c3e3474fa548e8adf6897dda05de
  5. Affected versionversion=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <737bb912ebbe4571195c56eba557c4d7315b26fb
  6. Affected versionversion=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <e01851f6e9a665a6011b14714b271d3e6b0b8d32
  7. Affected versionversion=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <ec6392061de6681148b63ee6c8744da833498cdd

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectoradjacent
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=6.1.107 <6.1.146; version=6.3; version=79720743421753ff72bfa0d79976c534645b81c1 <e2c8a3c0388aef6bfc4aabfba07bc7dff16eea80; version=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <6e3b09402cc6c3e3474fa548e8adf6897dda05de; version=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <737bb912ebbe4571195c56eba557c4d7315b26fb; version=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <e01851f6e9a665a6011b14714b271d3e6b0b8d32; version=986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7 <ec6392061de6681148b63ee6c8744da833498cdd

Published CVSS scores

7.8NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectoradjacent
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

T1557Adversary-in-the-Middle

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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