CVE-2023-53113 wifi: nl80211: fix NULL-ptr deref in offchan check

What is CVE-2023-53113?

CVE-2023-53113 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:

wifi: nl80211: fix NULL-ptr deref in offchan check

If, e.g. in AP mode, the link was already created by userspace but not activated yet, it has a chandef but the chandef isn't valid and has no channel. Check for this and ignore this link.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53113?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53113?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53113 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53113 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-2023-53113, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53113, GHSA-g3wq-cg32-6xwx, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53113.