# CVE-2023-52611: wifi: rtw88: sdio: Honor the host max_req_size in the RX path

> A bug in the rtw88 SDIO WiFi driver causes kernel panics when receiving large aggregated packets on specific hardware, leading to system crashes.

- **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:** 18 Mar 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52611, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52611, GHSA-rw64-46h7-gmc8, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52611

## What is CVE-2023-52611?

CVE-2023-52611 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Mar 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:

wifi: rtw88: sdio: Honor the host max_req_size in the RX path

Lukas reports skb_over_panic errors on his Banana Pi BPI-CM4 which comes
with an Amlogic A311D (G12B) SoC and a RTL8822CS SDIO wifi/Bluetooth
combo card. The error he observed is identical to what has been fixed
in commit e967229ead0e ("wifi: rtw88: sdio: Check the HISR RX_REQUEST
bit in rtw_sdio_rx_isr()") but that commit didn't fix Lukas' problem.

Lukas found that disabling or limiting RX aggregation works around the
problem for some time (but does not fully fix it). In the following
discussion a few key topics have been discussed which have an impact on
this problem:
- The Amlogic A311D (G12B) SoC has a hardware bug in the SDIO controller
  which prevents DMA transfers. Instead all transfers need to go through
  the controller SRAM which limits transfers to 1536 bytes
- rtw88 chips don't split incoming (RX) packets, so if a big packet is
  received this is forwarded to the host in it's original form
- rtw88 chips can do RX aggregation, meaning more multiple incoming
  packets can be pulled by the host from the card with one MMC/SDIO
  transfer. This Depends on settings in the REG_RXDMA_AGG_PG_TH
  register (BIT_RXDMA_AGG_PG_TH limits the number of packets that will
  be aggregated, BIT_DMA_AGG_TO_V1 configures a timeout for aggregation
  and BIT_EN_PRE_CALC makes the chip honor the limits more effectively)

Use multiple consecutive reads in rtw_sdio_read_port() and limit the
number of bytes which are copied by the host from the card in one
MMC/SDIO transfer. This allows receiving a buffer that's larger than
the hosts max_req_size (number of bytes which can be transferred in
one MMC/SDIO transfer). As a result of this the skb_over_panic error
is gone as the rtw88 driver is now able to receive more than 1536 bytes
from the card (either because the incoming packet is larger than that
or because multiple packets have been aggregated).

In case of an receive errors (-EILSEQ has been observed by Lukas) we
need to drain the remaining data from the card's buffer, otherwise the
card will return corrupt data for the next rtw_sdio_read_port() call.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52611?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52611?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52611 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52611 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-2023-52611 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52611 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Mar 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-2023-52611 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-2023-52611/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52611/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52611
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52611
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52611

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52611/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.