Bug 2389490 (CVE-2025-38605)

Summary: CVE-2025-38605 kernel: wifi: ath12k: Pass ab pointer directly to ath12k_dp_tx_get_encap_type()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-08-19 18:03:47 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath12k: Pass ab pointer directly to ath12k_dp_tx_get_encap_type()

In ath12k_dp_tx_get_encap_type(), the arvif parameter is only used to
retrieve the ab pointer. In vdev delete sequence the arvif->ar could
become NULL and that would trigger kernel panic.
Since the caller ath12k_dp_tx() already has a valid ab pointer, pass it
directly to avoid panic and unnecessary dereferencing.

PC points to "ath12k_dp_tx+0x228/0x988 [ath12k]"
LR points to "ath12k_dp_tx+0xc8/0x988 [ath12k]".
The Backtrace obtained is as follows:
ath12k_dp_tx+0x228/0x988 [ath12k]
ath12k_mac_tx_check_max_limit+0x608/0x920 [ath12k]
ieee80211_process_measurement_req+0x320/0x348 [mac80211]
ieee80211_tx_dequeue+0x9ac/0x1518 [mac80211]
ieee80211_tx_dequeue+0xb14/0x1518 [mac80211]
ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb+0x224/0x254 [mac80211]
ieee80211_xmit+0xec/0x100 [mac80211]
__ieee80211_subif_start_xmit+0xc50/0xf40 [mac80211]
ieee80211_subif_start_xmit+0x2e8/0x308 [mac80211]
netdev_start_xmit+0x150/0x18c
dev_hard_start_xmit+0x74/0xc0

Tested-on: QCN9274 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.WBE.1.3.1-00173-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1
Comment 1 Jon Moroney 2025-08-19 22:34:14 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025081922-CVE-2025-38605-32f2@gregkh/T