CVE-2025-39890
Linux Kernel 6.3 – 6.6.94
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-2025-39890 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 4th 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-2025-30959
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath12k: fix memory leak in ath12k_service_ready_ext_event Currently, in ath12k_service_ready_ext_event(), svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps is not freed in the failure case, causing a memory leak. The following trace is observed in kmemleak: unreferenced…
more
object 0xffff8b3eb5789c00 (size 1024): comm "softirq", pid 0, jiffies 4294942577 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7b 00 00 10 ............{... 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 1f 38 00 00 .............8.. backtrace (crc 44e1c357): __kmalloc_noprof+0x30b/0x410 ath12k_wmi_mac_phy_caps_parse+0x84/0x100 [ath12k] ath12k_wmi_tlv_iter+0x5e/0x140 [ath12k] ath12k_wmi_svc_rdy_ext_parse+0x308/0x4c0 [ath12k] ath12k_wmi_tlv_iter+0x5e/0x140 [ath12k] ath12k_service_ready_ext_event.isra.0+0x44/0xd0 [ath12k] ath12k_wmi_op_rx+0x2eb/0xd70 [ath12k] ath12k_htc_rx_completion_handler+0x1f4/0x330 [ath12k] ath12k_ce_recv_process_cb+0x218/0x300 [ath12k] ath12k_pci_ce_workqueue+0x1b/0x30 [ath12k] process_one_work+0x219/0x680 bh_worker+0x198/0x1f0 tasklet_action+0x13/0x30 handle_softirqs+0xca/0x460 __irq_exit_rcu+0xbe/0x110 irq_exit_rcu+0x9/0x30 Free svc_rdy_ext.mac_phy_caps in the error case to fix this memory leak. Tested-on: QCN9274 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.WBE.1.4.1-00199-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1
- 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 (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.
Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.
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 enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
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 in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.
Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.