Linux Kernel up to 6.6.119/6.12.63/6.18.3 MT8173 null pointer dereference

CVSS Meta Temp Score
CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.
Current Exploit Price (≈)
Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.
CTI Interest Score
Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
4.6$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.119/6.12.63/6.18.3. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component MT8173. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-71140. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.119/6.12.63/6.18.3. This vulnerability affects an unknown part of the component MT8173. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: mediatek: vcodec: Use spinlock for context list protection lock Previously a mutex was added to protect the encoder and decoder context lists from unexpected changes originating from the SCP IP block, causing the context pointer to go invalid, resulting in a NULL pointer dereference in the IPI handler. Turns out on the MT8173, the VPU IPI handler is called from hard IRQ context. This causes a big warning from the scheduler. This was first reported downstream on the ChromeOS kernels, but is also reproducible on mainline using Fluster with the FFmpeg v4l2m2m decoders. Even though the actual capture format is not supported, the affected code paths are triggered. Since this lock just protects the context list and operations on it are very fast, it should be OK to switch to a spinlock.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-71140 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 284715 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-71140), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.120, 6.12.64, 6.18.4 or 6.19-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2c1ea6214827041f548279c9eda341eda0cc8351/b92c19675f632a41af1222027a231bc2b7efa7ed/3e858938b0e659f6ec9ddcf853a87f1c5c3f44e1/a5844227e0f030d2af2d85d4aed10c5eca6ca176 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 databases at Tenable (284715) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0119). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

  • Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

Version

License

Website

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 4.8
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 4.6

VulDB Base Score: 4.8
VulDB Temp Score: 4.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-DayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
TodayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

Nessus ID: 284715
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-71140

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.6.120/6.12.64/6.18.4/6.19-rc1
Patch: 2c1ea6214827041f548279c9eda341eda0cc8351/b92c19675f632a41af1222027a231bc2b7efa7ed/3e858938b0e659f6ec9ddcf853a87f1c5c3f44e1/a5844227e0f030d2af2d85d4aed10c5eca6ca176

Timelineinfo

01/13/2026 CVE reserved
01/14/2026 +1 days Advisory disclosed
01/14/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
01/16/2026 +2 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2025-71140 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2025-71140
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-341092
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2026-0119 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen

Entryinfo

Created: 01/14/2026 17:51
Updated: 01/16/2026 10:10
Changes: 01/14/2026 17:51 (58), 01/16/2026 08:09 (7), 01/16/2026 10:10 (2)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Do you need the next level of professionalism?

Upgrade your account now!