{"id":"CVE-2025-38512","published":"2025-08-16T10:54:54Z","modified":"2026-10-15T21:52:18Z","title":"wifi: prevent A-MSDU attacks in mesh networks","vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","tier":"tail","description":{"text":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: prevent A-MSDU attacks in mesh networks\n\nThis patch is a mitigation to prevent the A-MSDU spoofing vulnerability\nfor mesh networks. The initial update to the IEEE 802.11 standard, in\nresponse to the FragAttacks, missed this case (CVE-2025-27558). It can\nbe considered a variant of CVE-2020-24588 but for mesh networks.\n\nThis patch tries to detect if a standard MSDU was turned into an A-MSDU\nby an adversary. This is done by parsing a received A-MSDU as a standard\nMSDU, calculating the length of the Mesh Control header, and seeing if\nthe 6 bytes after this header equal the start of an rfc1042 header. If\nequal, this is a strong indication of an ongoing attack attempt.\n\nThis defense was tested with mac80211_hwsim against a mesh network that\nuses an empty Mesh Address Extension field, i.e., when four addresses\nare used, and when using a 12-byte Mesh Address Extension field, i.e.,\nwhen six addresses are used. Functionality of normal MSDUs and A-MSDUs\nwas also tested, and confirmed working, when using both an empty and\n12-byte Mesh Address Extension field.\n\nIt was also tested with mac80211_hwsim that A-MSDU attacks in non-mesh\nnetworks keep being detected and prevented.\n\nNote that the vulnerability being patched, and the defense being\nimplemented, was also discussed in the following paper and in the\nfollowing IEEE 802.11 presentation:\n\nhttps://papers.mathyvanhoef.com/wisec2025.pdf\nhttps://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/25/11-25-0949-00-000m-a-msdu-mesh-spoof-protection.docx","provenance":"source","from":"CVE.org"},"cvss":{"score":8.8,"severity":"HIGH","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","provenance":"source","from":"CVE.org CNA"},"epss":{"score":0.00236,"percentile":0.14581,"provenance":"source"},"cwes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2c8a3c0388aef6bfc4aabfba07bc7dff16eea80","tags":[]},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ec6392061de6681148b63ee6c8744da833498cdd","tags":[]},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e01851f6e9a665a6011b14714b271d3e6b0b8d32","tags":[]},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6e3b09402cc6c3e3474fa548e8adf6897dda05de","tags":[]},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/737bb912ebbe4571195c56eba557c4d7315b26fb","tags":[]},{"url":"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html","tags":[]}],"priority":{"score":9.1,"factors":[{"name":"EPSS percentile","points":2.92},{"name":"CVSS severity","points":6.16}]},"vendorSlug":"linux","affectedVersions":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","versions":[">= 79720743421753ff72bfa0d79976c534645b81c1, < e2c8a3c0388aef6bfc4aabfba07bc7dff16eea80",">= 986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7, < ec6392061de6681148b63ee6c8744da833498cdd",">= 986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7, < e01851f6e9a665a6011b14714b271d3e6b0b8d32",">= 986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7, < 6e3b09402cc6c3e3474fa548e8adf6897dda05de",">= 986e43b19ae9176093da35e0a844e65c8bf9ede7, < 737bb912ebbe4571195c56eba557c4d7315b26fb",">= 6.1.107, < 6.1.146"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","versions":["6.3"]}],"euvd":{"id":"EUVD-2025-25086","exploited":false,"provenance":"source"},"lineage":{"familyId":"fam-linux-cve-2020-24588","parents":[{"from":"CVE-2020-24588","to":"CVE-2025-38512","relation":"variant","confidence":"high","kind":"lineage","evidence":[{"kind":"text","provenance":"source","relation":"variant","quote":"It can be considered a variant of CVE-2020-24588 but for mesh networks.","from":"CVE.org","in":"CVE-2025-38512"}]}]}}