CVE-2025-38557

HID: apple: validate feature-report field count to prevent NULL pointer dereference

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: apple: validate feature-report field count to prevent NULL pointer dereference A malicious HID device with quirk APPLE_MAGIC_BACKLIGHT can trigger a NULL pointer dereference whilst the power feature-report is toggled and sent to the device in apple_magic_backlight_report_set(). The power feature-report is expected to have two data fields, but if the descriptor declares one field then accessing field[1] and dereferencing it in apple_magic_backlight_report_set() becomes invalid since field[1] will be NULL. An example of a minimal descriptor which can cause the crash is something like the following where the report with ID 3 (power report) only references a single 1-byte field. When hid core parses the descriptor it will encounter the final feature tag, allocate a hid_report (all members of field[] will be zeroed out), create field structure and populate it, increasing the maxfield to 1. The subsequent field[1] access and dereference causes the crash. Usage Page (Vendor Defined 0xFF00) Usage (0x0F) Collection (Application) Report ID (1) Usage (0x01) Logical Minimum (0) Logical Maximum (255) Report Size (8) Report Count (1) Feature (Data,Var,Abs) Usage (0x02) Logical Maximum (32767) Report Size (16) Report Count (1) Feature (Data,Var,Abs) Report ID (3) Usage (0x03) Logical Minimum (0) Logical Maximum (1) Report Size (8) Report Count (1) Feature (Data,Var,Abs) End Collection Here we see the KASAN splat when the kernel dereferences the NULL pointer and crashes: [ 15.164723] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000006: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI [ 15.165691] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000030-0x0000000000000037] [ 15.165691] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 10 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 6.15.0 #31 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 15.165691] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014 [ 15.165691] RIP: 0010:apple_magic_backlight_report_set+0xbf/0x210 [ 15.165691] Call Trace: [ 15.165691] <TASK> [ 15.165691] apple_probe+0x571/0xa20 [ 15.165691] hid_device_probe+0x2e2/0x6f0 [ 15.165691] really_probe+0x1ca/0x5c0 [ 15.165691] __driver_probe_device+0x24f/0x310 [ 15.165691] driver_probe_device+0x4a/0xd0 [ 15.165691] __device_attach_driver+0x169/0x220 [ 15.165691] bus_for_each_drv+0x118/0x1b0 [ 15.165691] __device_attach+0x1d5/0x380 [ 15.165691] device_initial_probe+0x12/0x20 [ 15.165691] bus_probe_device+0x13d/0x180 [ 15.165691] device_add+0xd87/0x1510 [...] To fix this issue we should validate the number of fields that the backlight and power reports have and if they do not have the required number of fields then bail.

N/A
CVSS
Severity:
EPSS 0.02%
Affected: Linux Linux
Affected: Linux Linux
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2025-38557?
CVE-2025-38557 has not yet been assigned a CVSS score.
How to fix CVE-2025-38557?
To fix CVE-2025-38557, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2025-38557 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2025-38557 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2025-38557?
CVE-2025-38557 affects Linux Linux, Linux Linux.
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