What is CVE-2025-38509?

CVE-2025-38509 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 6.13 onward and patched in 6.15.7 and 6.16. CVE-2025-38509 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38509?

CVE-2025-38509 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38509?

Yes, CVE-2025-38509 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.15.7 and 6.16. If you are running Linux kernel 6.13 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2025-38509 actively exploited?

CVE-2025-38509 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2025-38509

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: reject VHT opmode for unsupported channel widths VHT operating mode notifications are not defined for channel widths below 20 MHz. In particular, 5 MHz and 10 MHz are not valid under the VHT specification and must be rejected. Without this check, malformed notifications using these widths may reach ieee80211_chan_width_to_rx_bw(), leading to a WARN_ON due to invalid input. This issue was reported by syzbot. Reject these unsupported widths early in sta_link_apply_parameters() when opmode_notif is used. The accepted set includes 20, 40, 80, 160, and 80+80 MHz, which are valid for VHT. While 320 MHz is not defined for VHT, it is allowed to avoid rejecting HE or EHT clients that may still send a VHT opmode notification.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-08-16

Last modified 2025-11-19

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.13 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.15.7, 6.16 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 6.13

Fixed in

✓ 6.15.7 6.15.x ✓ 6.16

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-38509 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18eca59a04500b68a90e0c5c873f97c9d1ea2bfa
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/58fcb1b4287ce38850402bb2bb16d09bf77b91d9
Patch

Details

CVE ID CVE-2025-38509

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-08-16

Modified 2025-11-19

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38509?

CVE-2025-38509 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.13 onward and has been patched in 6.15.7 and 6.16. CVE-2025-38509 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38509?

CVE-2025-38509 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38509?

Yes — CVE-2025-38509 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.15.7 and 6.16. If you are running Linux kernel 6.13 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2025-38509 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2025-38509 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.