Linux Kernel up to 6.3.3 probe null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.3.3. Affected by this issue is the function probe. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability was named CVE-2023-53565. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.3.3. Affected is the function probe. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: brcmfmac: Check for probe() id argument being NULL The probe() id argument may be NULL in 2 scenarios: 1. brcmf_pcie_pm_leave_D3() calling brcmf_pcie_probe() to reprobe the device. 2. If a user tries to manually bind the driver from sysfs then the sdio / pcie / usb probe() function gets called with NULL as id argument. 1. Is being hit by users causing the following oops on resume and causing wifi to stop working: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 <snip> Hardware name: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9350/0PWNCR, BIDS 1.13.0 02/10/2020 Workgueue: events_unbound async_run_entry_fn RIP: 0010:brcmf_pcie_probe+Ox16b/0x7a0 [brcmfmac] <snip> Call Trace: <TASK> brcmf_pcie_pm_leave_D3+0xc5/8x1a0 [brcmfmac be3b4cefca451e190fa35be8f00db1bbec293887] ? pci_pm_resume+0x5b/0xf0 ? pci_legacy_resume+0x80/0x80 dpm_run_callback+0x47/0x150 device_resume+0xa2/0x1f0 async_resume+0x1d/0x30 <snip> Fix this by checking for id being NULL. In the PCI and USB cases try a manual lookup of the id so that manually binding the driver through sysfs and more importantly brcmf_pcie_probe() on resume will work. For the SDIO case there is no helper to do a manual sdio_device_id lookup, so just directly error out on a NULL id there.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53565 since 10/04/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.3.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 84766e77a5c35e2b60e34f570c62fc97adc05e09/60fc756fc8e6954a5618eecac73b255d651602e4 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 EUVD (EUVD-2023-60043) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2194). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1
• 6.3.2
• 6.3.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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