Vulnerability · Published Oct 7, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53641wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: fix memory leak of remain_skbs

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 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.8% 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: ath9k: hif_usb: fix memory leak of remain_skbs hif_dev->remain_skb is allocated and used exclusively in ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). It is implied that an allocated remain_skb is processed and subsequently freed (in error paths) only during the next call of ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). So, if the urbs are deallocated between those two calls due to the device deinitialization or suspend, it is possible that ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream() is not called next time and the allocated remain_skb is leaked. Our local Syzkaller instance was able to trigger that. remain_skb makes sense when receiving two consecutive urbs which are logically linked together, i.e. a specific data field from the first skb indicates a cached skb to be allocated, memcpy'd with some data and subsequently processed in the next call to ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). Urbs deallocation supposedly makes that link irrelevant so we need to free the cached skb in those cases. Fix the leak by introducing a function to explicitly free remain_skb (if it is not NULL) when the rx urbs have been deallocated. remain_skb is NULL when it has not been allocated at all (hif_dev struct is kzalloced) or when it has been processed in next call to ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.37-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53641
Debian:13linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53641
Debian:14linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-79.86UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1042.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1045.52UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1045.52.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1039.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1025.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1037.42UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-79.88UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1030.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra5.15.0-1016.16UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igx5.15.0-1002.2UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1040.46UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmp5.15.0-1025.29UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53641

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 6719e3797ec52cd144c8a5ba8aaab36674800585fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before d9899318660791141ea6002fda5577b2c5d7386efb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 320d760a35273aa815d58b57e4fd9ba5279a3489fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 59073060fe0950c6ecbe12bdc06469dcac62128dfb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 9b9356a3014123f0ce4b50d9278c1265173150abfb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before f0931fc8f4b6847c72e170d2326861c0a081d680fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 8f02d538878c9b1501f624595eb22ee4e5e0ff84fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08 – before 7654cc03eb699297130b693ec34e25f77b17c947
Linux Linux 2.6.35

References