Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-38299 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-20949
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ASoC: mediatek: mt8195: Set ETDM1/2 IN/OUT to COMP_DUMMY() ETDM2_IN_BE and ETDM1_OUT_BE are defined as COMP_EMPTY(), in the case the codec dai_name will be null. Avoid a crash if the device…
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tree is not assigning a codec to these links. [ 1.179936] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 [ 1.181065] Mem abort info: [ 1.181420] ESR = 0x0000000096000004 [ 1.181892] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 1.182576] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 1.182964] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 1.183367] FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault [ 1.183983] Data abort info: [ 1.184406] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 1.185097] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 1.185766] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 1.186439] [0000000000000000] user address but active_mm is swapper [ 1.187239] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1] PREEMPT SMP [ 1.188029] Modules linked in: [ 1.188420] CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 70 Comm: kworker/u32:1 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc4-next-20250226+ #85 [ 1.189515] Hardware name: Radxa NIO 12L (DT) [ 1.190065] Workqueue: events_unbound deferred_probe_work_func [ 1.190808] pstate: 40400009 (nZcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1.191683] pc : __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 [ 1.192170] lr : mt8195_mt6359_soc_card_probe+0x224/0x7b0 [ 1.192854] sp : ffff800083473970 [ 1.193271] x29: ffff800083473a10 x28: 0000000000001008 x27: 0000000000000002 [ 1.194168] x26: ffff800082408960 x25: ffff800082417db0 x24: ffff800082417d88 [ 1.195065] x23: 000000000000001e x22: ffff800082dbf480 x21: ffff800082dc07b8 [ 1.195961] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: 0000000000000013 x18: 00000000ffffffff [ 1.196858] x17: 000000040044ffff x16: 005000f2b5503510 x15: 0000000000000006 [ 1.197755] x14: ffff800082407af0 x13: 6e6f69737265766e x12: 692d6b636f6c6374 [ 1.198651] x11: 0000000000000002 x10: ffff80008240b920 x9 : 0000000000000018 [ 1.199547] x8 : 0101010101010101 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.200443] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 8080808080000000 x3 : 303933383978616d [ 1.201339] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff80008240b920 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.202236] Call trace: [ 1.202545] __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 (P) [ 1.203029] mtk_soundcard_common_probe+0x3bc/0x5b8 [ 1.203644] platform_probe+0x70/0xe8 [ 1.204106] really_probe+0xc8/0x3a0 [ 1.204556] __driver_probe_device+0x84/0x160 [ 1.205104] driver_probe_device+0x44/0x130 [ 1.205630] __device_attach_driver+0xc4/0x170 [ 1.206189] bus_for_each_drv+0x8c/0xf8 [ 1.206672] __device_attach+0xa8/0x1c8 [ 1.207155] device_initial_probe+0x1c/0x30 [ 1.207681] bus_probe_device+0xb0/0xc0 [ 1.208165] deferred_probe_work_func+0xa4/0x100 [ 1.208747] process_one_work+0x158/0x3e0 [ 1.209254] worker_thread+0x2c4/0x3e8 [ 1.209727] kthread+0x134/0x1f0 [ 1.210136] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 1.210589] Code: 54000401 b50002c6 d503201f f86a6803 (f8408402) [ 1.211355] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.
Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.
Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.