What is CVE-2021-38206?

CVE-2021-38206 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2021-08-08.

How severe is CVE-2021-38206?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

NULL pointer dereference in Linux Kernel

CVE-2021-38206

The mac80211 subsystem in the Linux kernel before 5.12.13, when a device supporting only 5 GHz is used, allows attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference in the radiotap parser) by injecting a frame with 802.11a rates.

Published 2021-08-08 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (17.2th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 17th percentile — 17.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-476 — NULL Pointer Dereference

References

cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.12.13 (Patch, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/bddc0c411a45d3718ac535a070f349be8eca8d48 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-38206?: CVE-2021-38206 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2021-08-08.
How severe is CVE-2021-38206?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.