CVE-2025-21438
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMemory corruption while IOCTL call is invoked from user-space to read board data.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in a kernel-mode driver where an IOCTL handler fails to properly validate or bounds-check user-supplied data when reading board data, allowing a local attacker to trigger corruption and potentially achieve code execution in kernel context.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed wireless adapterRun 'lspci | grep -i network' or 'lspci | grep -i wireless' to list network adapters, or 'nmcli device show' on Linux. On Windows, check Device Manager under Network adapters.Affected if The adapter is a Qualcomm Fastconnect 6200/6700/6900/7800 or Qca6164/Qca6174/Qca6174a/Qca6595au
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Check the firmware version of the Qualcomm wireless adapterOn Linux, use 'dmesg | grep -i firmware' or check /sys/class/net/*/device/firmware_version. On Windows, check driver properties in Device Manager.Affected if The firmware version matches any of the affected product names (all versions are affected)
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Verify the kernel driver is loadedRun 'lsmod | grep -i ath' or 'lsmod | grep -i qca' on Linux to find Qualcomm wireless drivers (ath10k, ath11k, qca6174, etc.). On Windows, check for Qualcomm driver entries in driver query.Affected if A Qualcomm wireless kernel-mode driver is loaded and active
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Confirm the IOCTL interface is accessibleCheck if the wireless device node exists: 'ls -la /dev/wlan*' or 'ls -la /dev/ath*' on Linux. On Windows, verify the driver accepts IOCTLs via tools like WinObj or Driver Verifier logs.Affected if The device interface is present and accessible to local users
If your system uses any of the listed Qualcomm wireless adapters with the affected firmware, you are vulnerable since all versions are affected.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor-provided security updates immediately; until patch available, restrict or monitor access to the affected driver/device and disable the IOCTL interface if non-essential.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $11,776.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-21438 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-21438 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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