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Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2023-54036 json

wifi: rtl8xxxu: Fix memory leaks with RTL8723BU, RTL8192EU

published 2025-12-24 10 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-205126

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 8%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

wifi: rtl8xxxu: Fix memory leaks with RTL8723BU, RTL8192EU

The wifi + bluetooth combo chip RTL8723BU can leak memory (especially?) when it's connected to a bluetooth audio device. The busy bluetooth traffic generates lots of C2H (card to host) messages, which are not freed correctly.

To fix this, move the dev_kfree_skb() call in rtl8xxxu_c2hcmd_callback() inside the loop where skb_dequeue() is called.

The RTL8192EU leaks memory because the C2H messages are added to the queue and left there forever. (This was fine in the past because it probably wasn't sending any C2H messages until commit e542e66b7c2e ("wifi: rtl8xxxu: gen2: Turn on the rate control"). Since that commit it sends a C2H message when the TX rate changes.)

To fix this, delete the check for rf_paths > 1 and the goto. Let the function process the C2H messages from RTL8192EU like the ones from the other chips.

Theoretically the RTL8188FU could also leak like RTL8723BU, but it most likely doesn't send C2H messages frequently enough.

This change was tested with RTL8723BU by Erhard F. I tested it with RTL8188FU and RTL8192EU.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 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-2023-54036

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-75.82
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1038.43
  • 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 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1032.35
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1035.40
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1040.47
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1022.27

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54036

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 RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:7077RHSA-2023:6583

  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.4 +5 more 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP4-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.4 +3 more 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:0617-1SUSE-SU-2026:0411-1SUSE-SU-2026:0317-1SUSE-SU-2026:0263-1

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-2023-54036 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: Linux kernel: Denial of Service due to memory leak in rtl8xxxu Wi-Fi driver

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, bpftool 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-core 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-tools 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, python3-perf 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:7077
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more 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

Exploit prediction

0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

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.