Linux Kernel up to 6.15.1 pinctrl pinctrl-mtk-common-v2.h mtk_eint_do_init soc null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.15.1. This affects the function mtk_eint_do_init in the library pinctrl-mtk-common-v2.h of the component pinctrl. The manipulation of the argument soc results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2025-38266. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.15.1. It has been classified as critical. Affected is the function mtk_eint_do_init in the library pinctrl-mtk-common-v2.h of the component pinctrl. The manipulation of the argument soc with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

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'.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-38266 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.15.2 or 6.16-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 9ebe21ede792cef851847648962c363cac67d17f/1c9977b263475373b31bbf86af94a5c9ae2be42c is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1522). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell Avamar
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.15.0
• 6.15.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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