CVE-2025-38601
Linux Kernel 5.7 – 5.10.241
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-38601 is a high-severity Missing Initialization of Resource (CWE-909) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked at the 14th 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.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-26094
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath11k: clear initialized flag for deinit-ed srng lists In a number of cases we see kernel panics on resume due to ath11k kernel page fault, which happens under the…
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following circumstances: 1) First ath11k_hal_dump_srng_stats() call Last interrupt received for each group: ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 0 22511ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 1 14440788ms before [..] ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to receive control response completion, polling.. ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Service connect timeout ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to connect to HTT: -110 ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to start core: -110 ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware crashed: MHI_CB_EE_RDDM ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: already resetting count 2 ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to wait wlan mode request (mode 4): -110 ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: qmi failed to send wlan mode off: -110 ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to reconfigure driver on crash recovery [..] 2) At this point reconfiguration fails (we have 2 resets) and ath11k_core_reconfigure_on_crash() calls ath11k_hal_srng_deinit() which destroys srng lists. However, it does not reset per-list ->initialized flag. 3) Second ath11k_hal_dump_srng_stats() call sees stale ->initialized flag and attempts to dump srng stats: Last interrupt received for each group: ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 0 66785ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 1 14485062ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 2 14485062ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 3 14485062ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 4 14780845ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 5 14780845ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 6 14485062ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 7 66814ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 8 68997ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 9 67588ms before ath11k_pci 0000:01:00.0: group_id 10 69511ms before BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffa007404eb010 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 100000067 P4D 100000067 PUD 10022d067 PMD 100b01067 PTE 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:ath11k_hal_dump_srng_stats+0x2b4/0x3b0 [ath11k] Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body+0xae/0xb0 ? page_fault_oops+0x381/0x3e0 ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0xa0 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? ath11k_hal_dump_srng_stats+0x2b4/0x3b0 [ath11k (HASH:6cea 4)] ath11k_qmi_driver_event_work+0xbd/0x1050 [ath11k (HASH:6cea 4)] worker_thread+0x389/0x930 kthread+0x149/0x170 Clear per-list ->initialized flag in ath11k_hal_srng_deinit().
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing initialization through static analysis or test cases.
Documented development standards and processes can mandate initialization of critical resources.
Security engineering principles can require explicit resource initialization during design and coding.
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 directly require proper resource initialization as part of coding standards and verification.
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 missing initialization defects before deployment.
Secure development life cycle mandates initialization of resources before use.
Application security requirements can specify resource initialization checks.
Secure architecture principles include proper resource lifecycle management.
Secure coding standards explicitly require initialization of variables and resources.
Change management can enforce review of initialization logic during modifications.