# CVE-2023-52765: mfd: qcom-spmi-pmic: Fix revid implementation

> A null pointer dereference in the Qualcomm SPMI PMIC driver can cause a kernel crash, requiring a patch to the Linux kernel.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **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-2023-52765, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52765, GHSA-wgf9-7m97-x4xg, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52765

## What is CVE-2023-52765?

CVE-2023-52765 is a medium-severity 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:

mfd: qcom-spmi-pmic: Fix revid implementation

The Qualcomm SPMI PMIC revid implementation is broken in multiple ways.

First, it assumes that just because the sibling base device has been
registered that means that it is also bound to a driver, which may not
be the case (e.g. due to probe deferral or asynchronous probe). This
could trigger a NULL-pointer dereference when attempting to access the
driver data of the unbound device.

Second, it accesses driver data of a sibling device directly and without
any locking, which means that the driver data may be freed while it is
being accessed (e.g. on driver unbind).

Third, it leaks a struct device reference to the sibling device which is
looked up using the spmi_device_from_of() every time a function (child)
device is calling the revid function (e.g. on probe).

Fix this mess by reimplementing the revid lookup so that it is done only
at probe of the PMIC device; the base device fetches the revid info from
the hardware, while any secondary SPMI device fetches the information
from the base device and caches it so that it can be accessed safely
from its children. If the base device has not been probed yet then probe
of a secondary device is deferred.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52765?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52765?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52765 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52765 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-2023-52765 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52765 is a medium-severity 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-2023-52765 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-2023-52765/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52765/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52765
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52765
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52765

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52765/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.