Vulnerability · Published Oct 1, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53532wifi: ath11k: fix deinitialization of firmware resources

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 4% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 96.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath11k: fix deinitialization of firmware resources Currently, in ath11k_ahb_fw_resources_init(), iommu domain mapping is done only for the chipsets having fixed firmware memory. Also, for such chipsets, mapping is done only if it does not have TrustZone support. During deinitialization, only if TrustZone support is not there, iommu is unmapped back. However, for non fixed firmware memory chipsets, TrustZone support is not there and this makes the condition check to true and it tries to unmap the memory which was not mapped during initialization. This leads to the following trace - [ 83.198790] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000008 [ 83.259537] Modules linked in: ath11k_ahb ath11k qmi_helpers .. snip .. [ 83.280286] pstate: 20000005 (nzCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 83.287228] pc : __iommu_unmap+0x30/0x140 [ 83.293907] lr : iommu_unmap+0x5c/0xa4 [ 83.298072] sp : ffff80000b3abad0 .. snip .. [ 83.369175] Call trace: [ 83.376282] __iommu_unmap+0x30/0x140 [ 83.378541] iommu_unmap+0x5c/0xa4 [ 83.382360] ath11k_ahb_fw_resource_deinit.part.12+0x2c/0xac [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.385666] ath11k_ahb_free_resources+0x140/0x17c [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.392521] ath11k_ahb_shutdown+0x34/0x40 [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.398248] platform_shutdown+0x20/0x2c [ 83.403455] device_shutdown+0x16c/0x1c4 [ 83.407621] kernel_restart_prepare+0x34/0x3c [ 83.411529] kernel_restart+0x14/0x74 [ 83.415781] __do_sys_reboot+0x1c4/0x22c [ 83.419427] __arm64_sys_reboot+0x1c/0x24 [ 83.423420] invoke_syscall+0x44/0xfc [ 83.427326] el0_svc_common.constprop.3+0xac/0xe8 [ 83.430974] do_el0_svc+0xa0/0xa8 [ 83.435659] el0_svc+0x1c/0x44 [ 83.438957] el0t_64_sync_handler+0x60/0x144 [ 83.441910] el0t_64_sync+0x15c/0x160 [ 83.446343] Code: aa0103f4 f9400001 f90027a1 d2800001 (f94006a0) [ 83.449903] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- This can be reproduced by probing an AHB chipset which is not having a fixed memory region. During reboot (or rmmod) trace can be seen. Fix this issue by adding a condition check on firmware fixed memory hw_param as done in the counter initialization function. Tested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.37-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53532
Debian:13linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53532
Debian:14linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53532

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – before 0324300dce3412d4737b4ec5898d0188495a7caaf9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – before 8faf862d81ab197757761e87d0a99fbb96ab2cf0f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – before a1548363582a8066edd4986f839d785f13dda3aaf9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – before 5a78ac33e3cb8822da64dd1af196e83664b332b0
Linux Linux 5.19

References