CVE-2023-53119 nfc: pn533: initialize struct pn533_out_arg properly
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel NFC driver can cause a system crash when handling USB errors.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-53119?
CVE-2023-53119 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:
nfc: pn533: initialize struct pn533_out_arg properly
struct pn533_out_arg used as a temporary context for out_urb is not initialized properly. Its uninitialized 'phy' field can be dereferenced in error cases inside pn533_out_complete() callback function. It causes the following failure:
general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-next-20230110-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 10/26/2022 RIP: 0010:pn533_out_complete.cold+0x15/0x44 drivers/nfc/pn533/usb.c:441 Call Trace: <IRQ> __usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x2b6/0x5c0 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1671 usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x384/0x430 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1754 dummy_timer+0x1203/0x32d0 drivers/usb/gadget/udc/dummy_hcd.c:1988 call_timer_fn+0x1da/0x800 kernel/time/timer.c:1700 expire_timers+0x234/0x330 kernel/time/timer.c:1751 __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:2022 [inline] __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1995 [inline] run_timer_softirq+0x326/0x910 kernel/time/timer.c:2035 __do_softirq+0x1fb/0xaf6 kernel/softirq.c:571 invoke_softirq kernel/softirq.c:445 [inline] __irq_exit_rcu+0x123/0x180 kernel/softirq.c:650 irq_exit_rcu+0x9/0x20 kernel/softirq.c:662 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x97/0xc0 arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1107
Initialize the field with the pn533_usb_phy currently used.
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.
Weakness: CWE-908
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53119?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53119?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-53119 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53119 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53119, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53119, GHSA-2ccv-mmfh-gf82, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53119.