CVE-2023-53049 usb: ucsi: Fix NULL pointer deref in ucsi_connector_change()

What is CVE-2023-53049?

CVE-2023-53049 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 May 2025. 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: ucsi: Fix NULL pointer deref in ucsi_connector_change()

When ucsi_init() fails, ucsi->connector is NULL, yet in case of ucsi_acpi we may still get events which cause the ucs_acpi code to call ucsi_connector_change(), which then derefs the NULL ucsi->connector pointer.

Fix this by not setting ucsi->ntfy inside ucsi_init() until ucsi_init() has succeeded, so that ucsi_connector_change() ignores the events because UCSI_ENABLE_NTFY_CONNECTOR_CHANGE is not set in the ntfy mask.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53049?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53049?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53049 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53049 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53049, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53049, GHSA-fgxf-q65m-q88v, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53049.