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Unscored CVE-2025-38557 EUVD-2025-27900GHSA-448p-j6v9-gpmw

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

Published Aug 19, 2025 · Updated Nov 5, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.11 6.12.42

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.16.3-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.43-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-azure-fde No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws-6.14 +2 6.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1 USN-7934-1, USN-7879-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.14 6.14.0-1020.21~24.04.1 USN-7879-4
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.14 6.14.0-36.36~24.04.1 USN-7879-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-intel +12 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.14 6.14.0-1016.16 USN-7880-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.14 6.14.0-36.36.1~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +32 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 6.14.0-1016.16~24.04.1 USN-7879-2
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-64kb +7 6.12.0-160000.6.1 SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-64kb +7 6.12.0-160000.6.1 SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1, SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-rt +5 6.12.0-160000.6.1 SUSE-SU-2026:20560-1, SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 openSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-rt +10 6.12.0-160000.6.1 openSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 kernel-uek +34 6.12.0-104.43.4.2.el10uek ELSA-2025-20662

Advisories 13

References