# CVE-2023-52742: net: USB: Fix wrong-direction WARNING in plusb.c

> A logic error in the Linux kernel's plusb USB network driver causes a kernel warning and potential denial of service when handling specific control transfers.

- **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:** 21 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52742, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52742, GHSA-j77x-x992-6j7f, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52742

## What is CVE-2023-52742?

CVE-2023-52742 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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:

net: USB: Fix wrong-direction WARNING in plusb.c

The syzbot fuzzer detected a bug in the plusb network driver: A
zero-length control-OUT transfer was treated as a read instead of a
write.  In modern kernels this error provokes a WARNING:

usb 1-1: BOGUS control dir, pipe 80000280 doesn't match bRequestType c0
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 4645 at drivers/usb/core/urb.c:411
usb_submit_urb+0x14a7/0x1880 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:411
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 PID: 4645 Comm: dhcpcd Not tainted
6.2.0-rc6-syzkaller-00050-g9f266ccaa2f5 #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google
01/12/2023
RIP: 0010:usb_submit_urb+0x14a7/0x1880 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:411
...
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 usb_start_wait_urb+0x101/0x4b0 drivers/usb/core/message.c:58
 usb_internal_control_msg drivers/usb/core/message.c:102 [inline]
 usb_control_msg+0x320/0x4a0 drivers/usb/core/message.c:153
 __usbnet_read_cmd+0xb9/0x390 drivers/net/usb/usbnet.c:2010
 usbnet_read_cmd+0x96/0xf0 drivers/net/usb/usbnet.c:2068
 pl_vendor_req drivers/net/usb/plusb.c:60 [inline]
 pl_set_QuickLink_features drivers/net/usb/plusb.c:75 [inline]
 pl_reset+0x2f/0xf0 drivers/net/usb/plusb.c:85
 usbnet_open+0xcc/0x5d0 drivers/net/usb/usbnet.c:889
 __dev_open+0x297/0x4d0 net/core/dev.c:1417
 __dev_change_flags+0x587/0x750 net/core/dev.c:8530
 dev_change_flags+0x97/0x170 net/core/dev.c:8602
 devinet_ioctl+0x15a2/0x1d70 net/ipv4/devinet.c:1147
 inet_ioctl+0x33f/0x380 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:979
 sock_do_ioctl+0xcc/0x230 net/socket.c:1169
 sock_ioctl+0x1f8/0x680 net/socket.c:1286
 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
 __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:870 [inline]
 __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:856 [inline]
 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x197/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:856
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

The fix is to call usbnet_write_cmd() instead of usbnet_read_cmd() and
remove the USB_DIR_IN flag.

Weakness: CWE-670 (Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52742?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52742?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52742 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52742 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-2023-52742 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52742 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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-2023-52742 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-2023-52742/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52742/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52742
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52742
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52742

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52742/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.