# CVE-2023-52477: usb: hub: Guard against accesses to uninitialized BOS descriptors

> A missing check for uninitialized BOS descriptors in the Linux kernel USB hub driver allows a local attacker to cause a system crash via a null pointer dereference.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52477, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52477, GHSA-qw42-c97g-78x6, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52477

## What is CVE-2023-52477?

CVE-2023-52477 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

usb: hub: Guard against accesses to uninitialized BOS descriptors

Many functions in drivers/usb/core/hub.c and drivers/usb/core/hub.h
access fields inside udev->bos without checking if it was allocated and
initialized. If usb_get_bos_descriptor() fails for whatever
reason, udev->bos will be NULL and those accesses will result in a
crash:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
PGD 0 P4D 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
CPU: 5 PID: 17818 Comm: kworker/5:1 Tainted: G W 5.15.108-18910-gab0e1cb584e1 #1 <HASH:1f9e 1>
Hardware name: Google Kindred/Kindred, BIOS Google_Kindred.12672.413.0 02/03/2021
Workqueue: usb_hub_wq hub_event
RIP: 0010:hub_port_reset+0x193/0x788
Code: 89 f7 e8 20 f7 15 00 48 8b 43 08 80 b8 96 03 00 00 03 75 36 0f b7 88 92 03 00 00 81 f9 10 03 00 00 72 27 48 8b 80 a8 03 00 00 <48> 83 78 18 00 74 19 48 89 df 48 8b 75 b0 ba 02 00 00 00 4c 89 e9
RSP: 0018:ffffab740c53fcf8 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffa1bc5f678000 RCX: 0000000000000310
RDX: fffffffffffffdff RSI: 0000000000000286 RDI: ffffa1be9655b840
RBP: ffffab740c53fd70 R08: 00001b7d5edaa20c R09: ffffffffb005e060
R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: ffffab740c53fd3e R14: 0000000000000032 R15: 0000000000000000
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa1be96540000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000022e80c005 CR4: 00000000003706e0
Call Trace:
hub_event+0x73f/0x156e
? hub_activate+0x5b7/0x68f
process_one_work+0x1a2/0x487
worker_thread+0x11a/0x288
kthread+0x13a/0x152
? process_one_work+0x487/0x487
? kthread_associate_blkcg+0x70/0x70
ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

Fall back to a default behavior if the BOS descriptor isn't accessible
and skip all the functionalities that depend on it: LPM support checks,
Super Speed capabilitiy checks, U1/U2 states setup.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52477?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52477?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52477 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52477 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52477 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52477 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52477 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52477/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52477/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52477
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52477
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52477

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52477/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.