Vulnerability Database

373,546

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-38266 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

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'.

  • Published: Jul 10, 2025
  • Updated: Nov 19, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2025-38266
  • Severity: Medium
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Medium
  • Score: 5.5
  • AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWEs:

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.