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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2023-53199 json

wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: clean up skbs if ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() fails

published 2025-09-15 13 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2023-59884

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: clean up skbs if ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() fails

Syzkaller detected a memory leak of skbs in ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). While processing skbs in ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(), the already allocated skbs in skb_pool are not freed if ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() fails. If we have an incorrect pkt_len or pkt_tag, the input skb is considered invalid and dropped. All the associated packets already in skb_pool should be dropped and freed. Added a comment describing this issue.

The patch also makes remain_skb NULL after being processed so that it cannot be referenced after potential free. The initialization of hif_dev fields which are associated with remain_skb (rx_remain_len, rx_transfer_len and rx_pad_len) is moved after a new remain_skb is allocated.

Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.19.276, 5.4.235, 5.10.173, 5.15.99, 6.1.16, 6.2.3, 6.3
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.1.20-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53199

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-152.169
  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-75.82
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1104.112
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1038.43
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1107.116
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1036.44
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1036.41
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1051.56

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53199

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.5 5.14.21-150500.13.109.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.5 5.14.21-150500.13.109.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.133.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.133.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS 5.14.21-150400.24.179.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS +3 more 5.14.21-150400.24.179.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS +3 more 5.14.21-150400.24.179.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.4 +7 more 5.14.21-150400.24.179.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:3761-1SUSE-SU-2025:3716-1SUSE-SU-2025:03628-1SUSE-SU-2025:03615-1SUSE-SU-2025:03614-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-53199 updated cvss 6.5

kernel: wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: clean up skbs if ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() fails

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “To mitigate this issue, prevent module ath9k_hw from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, prevent module ath9k_hw from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-772 Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.