# CVE-2023-52894: usb: gadget: f_ncm: fix potential NULL ptr deref in ncm_bitrate()

> A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's NCM USB gadget driver can cause a system crash, leading to denial of service.

- **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 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52894, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52894, GHSA-9r79-4jhv-2rfr, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52894

## What is CVE-2023-52894?

CVE-2023-52894 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Aug 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: gadget: f_ncm: fix potential NULL ptr deref in ncm_bitrate()

In Google internal bug 265639009 we've received an (as yet) unreproducible
crash report from an aarch64 GKI 5.10.149-android13 running device.

AFAICT the source code is at:
  https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/refs/tags/ASB-2022-12-05_13-5.10

The call stack is:
  ncm_close() -> ncm_notify() -> ncm_do_notify()
with the crash at:
  ncm_do_notify+0x98/0x270
Code: 79000d0b b9000a6c f940012a f9400269 (b9405d4b)

Which I believe disassembles to (I don't know ARM assembly, but it looks sane enough to me...):

  // halfword (16-bit) store presumably to event->wLength (at offset 6 of struct usb_cdc_notification)
  0B 0D 00 79    strh w11, [x8, #6]

  // word (32-bit) store presumably to req->Length (at offset 8 of struct usb_request)
  6C 0A 00 B9    str  w12, [x19, #8]

  // x10 (NULL) was read here from offset 0 of valid pointer x9
  // IMHO we're reading 'cdev->gadget' and getting NULL
  // gadget is indeed at offset 0 of struct usb_composite_dev
  2A 01 40 F9    ldr  x10, [x9]

  // loading req->buf pointer, which is at offset 0 of struct usb_request
  69 02 40 F9    ldr  x9, [x19]

  // x10 is null, crash, appears to be attempt to read cdev->gadget->max_speed
  4B 5D 40 B9    ldr  w11, [x10, #0x5c]

which seems to line up with ncm_do_notify() case NCM_NOTIFY_SPEED code fragment:

  event->wLength = cpu_to_le16(8);
  req->length = NCM_STATUS_BYTECOUNT;

  /* SPEED_CHANGE data is up/down speeds in bits/sec */
  data = req->buf + sizeof *event;
  data[0] = cpu_to_le32(ncm_bitrate(cdev->gadget));

My analysis of registers and NULL ptr deref crash offset
  (Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 000000000000005c)
heavily suggests that the crash is due to 'cdev->gadget' being NULL when executing:
  data[0] = cpu_to_le32(ncm_bitrate(cdev->gadget));
which calls:
  ncm_bitrate(NULL)
which then calls:
  gadget_is_superspeed(NULL)
which reads
  ((struct usb_gadget *)NULL)->max_speed
and hits a panic.

AFAICT, if I'm counting right, the offset of max_speed is indeed 0x5C.
(remember there's a GKI KABI reservation of 16 bytes in struct work_struct)

It's not at all clear to me how this is all supposed to work...
but returning 0 seems much better than panic-ing...

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52894?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52894?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52894 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52894 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-2023-52894 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52894 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Aug 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-2023-52894 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-2023-52894/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52894/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52894
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52894
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52894

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52894/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.