---
id: CVE-2025-38606
title: 'wifi: ath12k: Avoid accessing uninitialized arvif->ar during beacon miss'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  wifi: ath12k: Avoid accessing uninitialized arvif->ar during beacon miss

  During beacon miss handling, ath12k driver iterates over active virtual
  interfaces (vifs) and …
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 <
    9b861dfc5c07defd0191fd3e7288a3179cd9a02e
  - >-
    Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 <
    1259b6da8303f70fef6ed4aef8ae3dedfecb0f27
  - >-
    Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 <
    36670b67de18f1e5d34900c5d2ac60a8970c293c
  - Linux 6.14
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T21:04:51.958383Z'
published: '2025-08-19'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T21:12:48.690Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38606'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b861dfc5c07defd0191fd3e7288a3179cd9a02e'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1259b6da8303f70fef6ed4aef8ae3dedfecb0f27'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/36670b67de18f1e5d34900c5d2ac60a8970c293c'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00159
epssPercentile: 0.05103
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:32.013Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath12k: Avoid accessing uninitialized arvif->ar during beacon miss

During beacon miss handling, ath12k driver iterates over active virtual
interfaces (vifs) and attempts to access the radio object (ar) via
arvif->deflink->ar.

However, after commit aa80f12f3bed ("wifi: ath12k: defer vdev creation for
MLO"), arvif is linked to a radio only after vdev creation, typically when
a channel is assigned or a scan is requested.
For P2P capable devices, a default P2P interface is created by
wpa_supplicant along with regular station interfaces, these serve as dummy
interfaces for P2P-capable stations, lack an associated netdev and initiate
frequent scans to discover neighbor p2p devices. When a scan is initiated
on such P2P vifs, driver selects destination radio (ar) based on scan
frequency, creates a scan vdev, and attaches arvif to the radio. Once the
scan completes or is aborted, the scan vdev is deleted, detaching arvif
from the radio and leaving arvif->ar uninitialized.

While handling beacon miss for station interfaces, P2P interface is also
encountered in the vif iteration and ath12k_mac_handle_beacon_miss_iter()
tries to dereference the uninitialized arvif->deflink->ar.

Fix this by verifying that vdev is created for the arvif before accessing
its ar during beacon miss handling and similar vif iterator callbacks.

==========================================================================
 wlp6s0: detected beacon loss from AP (missed 7 beacons) - probing
 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017]

 CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/5 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1-wt-ath+ #2 PREEMPT(full)
 RIP: 0010:ath12k_mac_handle_beacon_miss_iter+0xb5/0x1a0 [ath12k]
 Call Trace:
  __iterate_interfaces+0x11a/0x410 [mac80211]
  ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces_atomic+0x61/0x140 [mac80211]
  ath12k_mac_handle_beacon_miss+0xa1/0xf0 [ath12k]
  ath12k_roam_event+0x393/0x560 [ath12k]
  ath12k_wmi_op_rx+0x1486/0x28c0 [ath12k]
  ath12k_htc_process_trailer.isra.0+0x2fb/0x620 [ath12k]
  ath12k_htc_rx_completion_handler+0x448/0x830 [ath12k]
  ath12k_ce_recv_process_cb+0x549/0x9e0 [ath12k]
  ath12k_ce_per_engine_service+0xbe/0xf0 [ath12k]
  ath12k_pci_ce_workqueue+0x69/0x120 [ath12k]
  process_one_work+0xe3a/0x1430

Tested-on: QCN9274 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.WBE.1.4.1-00199-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1
Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.1.c5-00284.1-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3

## Affected

- `Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 < 9b861dfc5c07defd0191fd3e7288a3179cd9a02e`
- `Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 < 1259b6da8303f70fef6ed4aef8ae3dedfecb0f27`
- `Linux >= aa80f12f3bedc2d73e4cc43554aee44c277cc938 < 36670b67de18f1e5d34900c5d2ac60a8970c293c`
- `Linux 6.14`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.