--- id: CVE-2025-38643 title: |- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: Add missing lock in cfg80211_check_and_end_cac() Callers of wdev_chandef() must hold the wiphy mutex. But the worker cfg80211_propagate_cac_done_wk() … summary: |- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: Add missing lock in cfg80211_check_and_end_cac() Callers of wdev_chandef() must hold the wiphy mutex. But the worker cfg80211_propagate_cac_done_wk() … severity: high cvss: 8.8 cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H' cwe: - CWE-667 vendor: linux product: linux_kernel affected: - 'linux_kernel >= 4.14.170, < 4.15' - 'linux_kernel >= 4.19.102, < 4.20' - 'linux_kernel >= 5.4.18, < 5.5' - 'linux_kernel >= 5.5.1, < 6.6.118' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.57' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.10' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.16, < 6.16.1' - linux_kernel = 5.5 patched: - linux_kernel 6.16.1 published: '2025-08-22' updated: '2026-10-15' sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T22:18:48.070' source: NVD sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38643' references: - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2c5dee15239f3f3e31aa5c8808f18996c039e2c1' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4a63523d3541eef4cf504a9682e6fbe94ffe79a6' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7022df2248c08c6f75a01714163ac902333bf3db' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3d24038eb775f2f7a1dfef58d8e1dc444a12820' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dbce810607726408f889d3358f4780fd1436861e' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/defe9ce121160788547e8e6ec4438ad8a14f40dd' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: >- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-38643.json - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38643' - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2390401' - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38643' - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38643' - url: >- https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025082235-CVE-2025-38643-a281@gregkh/T tags: - nvd - csaf - vex - red-hat - cve.org - score-dispute epss: 0.00186 epssPercentile: 0.08173 ssvc: exploitation: none automatable: 'no' technicalImpact: total timestamp: '2026-10-15T21:52:31.279965Z' scores: nvd: 8.8 vendor: 4.1 cna: 8.8 ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T22:48:25.517Z' --- ## Overview In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: cfg80211: Add missing lock in cfg80211_check_and_end_cac() Callers of wdev_chandef() must hold the wiphy mutex. But the worker cfg80211_propagate_cac_done_wk() never takes the lock. Which triggers the warning below with the mesh_peer_connected_dfs test from hostapd and not (yet) released mac80211 code changes: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 495 at net/wireless/chan.c:1552 wdev_chandef+0x60/0x165 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 495 Comm: kworker/u4:2 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc5-wt-g03960e6f9d47 #33 13c287eeabfe1efea01c0bcc863723ab082e17cf Workqueue: cfg80211 cfg80211_propagate_cac_done_wk Stack: 00000000 00000001 ffffff00 6093267c 00000000 6002ec30 6d577c50 60037608 00000000 67e8d108 6063717b 00000000 Call Trace: [<6002ec30>] ? _printk+0x0/0x98 [<6003c2b3>] show_stack+0x10e/0x11a [<6002ec30>] ? _printk+0x0/0x98 [<60037608>] dump_stack_lvl+0x71/0xb8 [<6063717b>] ? wdev_chandef+0x60/0x165 [<6003766d>] dump_stack+0x1e/0x20 [<6005d1b7>] __warn+0x101/0x20f [<6005d3a8>] warn_slowpath_fmt+0xe3/0x15d [<600b0c5c>] ? mark_lock.part.0+0x0/0x4ec [<60751191>] ? __this_cpu_preempt_check+0x0/0x16 [<600b11a2>] ? mark_held_locks+0x5a/0x6e [<6005d2c5>] ? warn_slowpath_fmt+0x0/0x15d [<60052e53>] ? unblock_signals+0x3a/0xe7 [<60052f2d>] ? um_set_signals+0x2d/0x43 [<60751191>] ? __this_cpu_preempt_check+0x0/0x16 [<607508b2>] ? lock_is_held_type+0x207/0x21f [<6063717b>] wdev_chandef+0x60/0x165 [<605f89b4>] regulatory_propagate_dfs_state+0x247/0x43f [<60052f00>] ? um_set_signals+0x0/0x43 [<605e6bfd>] cfg80211_propagate_cac_done_wk+0x3a/0x4a [<6007e460>] process_scheduled_works+0x3bc/0x60e [<6007d0ec>] ? move_linked_works+0x4d/0x81 [<6007d120>] ? assign_work+0x0/0xaa [<6007f81f>] worker_thread+0x220/0x2dc [<600786ef>] ? set_pf_worker+0x0/0x57 [<60087c96>] ? to_kthread+0x0/0x43 [<6008ab3c>] kthread+0x2d3/0x2e2 [<6007f5ff>] ? worker_thread+0x0/0x2dc [<6006c05b>] ? calculate_sigpending+0x0/0x56 [<6003b37d>] new_thread_handler+0x4a/0x64 irq event stamp: 614611 hardirqs last enabled at (614621): [<00000000600bc96b>] __up_console_sem+0x82/0xaf hardirqs last disabled at (614630): [<00000000600bc92c>] __up_console_sem+0x43/0xaf softirqs last enabled at (614268): [<00000000606c55c6>] __ieee80211_wake_queue+0x933/0x985 softirqs last disabled at (614266): [<00000000606c52d6>] __ieee80211_wake_queue+0x643/0x985 ## Affected - `linux_kernel >= 4.14.170, < 4.15` - `linux_kernel >= 4.19.102, < 4.20` - `linux_kernel >= 5.4.18, < 5.5` - `linux_kernel >= 5.5.1, < 6.6.118` - `linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.57` - `linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.10` - `linux_kernel >= 6.16, < 6.16.1` - `linux_kernel = 5.5` ## Remediation Upgrade past the affected range: - `linux_kernel 6.16.1` ## Vendor advisories - **Red Hat VEX** · Low · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 · updated 2026-10-16 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-38643.json)