CVE-2025-38266
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-07-10

Last updated on: 2025-11-18

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pinctrl: mediatek: eint: Fix invalid pointer dereference for v1 platforms Commit 3ef9f710efcb ("pinctrl: mediatek: Add EINT support for multiple addresses") introduced an access to the 'soc' field of struct mtk_pinctrl in mtk_eint_do_init() and for that an include of pinctrl-mtk-common-v2.h. However, pinctrl drivers relying on the v1 common driver include pinctrl-mtk-common.h instead, which provides another definition of struct mtk_pinctrl that does not contain an 'soc' field. Since mtk_eint_do_init() can be called both by v1 and v2 drivers, it will now try to dereference an invalid pointer when called on v1 platforms. This has been observed on Genio 350 EVK (MT8365), which crashes very early in boot (the kernel trace can only be seen with earlycon). In order to fix this, since 'struct mtk_pinctrl' was only needed to get a 'struct mtk_eint_pin', make 'struct mtk_eint_pin' a parameter of mtk_eint_do_init() so that callers need to supply it, removing mtk_eint_do_init()'s dependency on any particular 'struct mtk_pinctrl'.
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Meta Information
Published
2025-07-10
Last Modified
2025-11-18
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2025-07-10
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
CVE-2025-38266
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel From 5.15.160 (inc) to 5.16 (inc)
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-476 The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability is an invalid pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's pinctrl driver for Mediatek platforms (v1). A function called mtk_eint_do_init() accesses a 'soc' field in a struct that does not exist in the v1 driver, causing the kernel to dereference an invalid pointer. This leads to a crash early in the boot process on affected devices like the Genio 350 EVK (MT8365). The fix involved changing the function to accept a parameter that removes the dependency on the problematic struct, preventing the invalid pointer access.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause the Linux kernel to crash very early during the boot process on affected Mediatek v1 platforms. This results in system instability or failure to boot, potentially rendering the device unusable until the issue is fixed.


What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

To mitigate this vulnerability, update the Linux kernel to a version that includes the fix for the invalid pointer dereference in the pinctrl mediatek driver. The fix involves modifying the mtk_eint_do_init() function to accept a struct mtk_eint_pin parameter, removing dependency on struct mtk_pinctrl, thus preventing crashes on v1 platforms. Avoid using affected kernel versions on Mediatek v1 platforms such as Genio 350 EVK (MT8365) until patched.


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