Linux Kernel up to 6.1.24/6.2.11 ishtp_cl_bus_match null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.24/6.2.11. Affected is the function ishtp_cl_bus_match. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53392. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.24/6.2.11. Affected by this issue is the function ishtp_cl_bus_match. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: intel-ish-hid: Fix kernel panic during warm reset During warm reset device->fw_client is set to NULL. If a bus driver is registered after this NULL setting and before new firmware clients are enumerated by ISHTP, kernel panic will result in the function ishtp_cl_bus_match(). This is because of reference to device->fw_client->props.protocol_name. ISH firmware after getting successfully loaded, sends a warm reset notification to remove all clients from the bus and sets device->fw_client to NULL. Until kernel v5.15, all enabled ISHTP kernel module drivers were loaded right after any of the first ISHTP device was registered, regardless of whether it was a matched or an unmatched device. This resulted in all drivers getting registered much before the warm reset notification from ISH. Starting kernel v5.16, this issue got exposed after the change was introduced to load only bus drivers for the respective matching devices. In this scenario, cros_ec_ishtp device and cros_ec_ishtp driver are registered after the warm reset device fw_client NULL setting. cros_ec_ishtp driver_register() triggers the callback to ishtp_cl_bus_match() to match ISHTP driver to the device and causes kernel panic in guid_equal() when dereferencing fw_client NULL pointer to get protocol_name.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-53392 since 09/17/2025. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265557 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53392), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.25 or 6.2.12 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 6c8cc40c588f8080a164d88336b1490279e0f1da/45b9055a3a3ff6e8c08faad82ea36a8644a81587/38518593ec55e897abda4b4be77b2ec8ec4447d1 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (265557) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2092). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7
• 6.2.8
• 6.2.9
• 6.2.10
• 6.2.11

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion