CVE-2023-53166 power: supply: bq25890: Fix external_power_changed race
A race condition in the bq25890 charger driver causes a NULL pointer dereference during boot, leading to a kernel crash and denial of service.
- 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-2023-53166?
CVE-2023-53166 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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:
power: supply: bq25890: Fix external_power_changed race
bq25890_charger_external_power_changed() dereferences bq->charger, which gets sets in bq25890_power_supply_init() like this:
bq->charger = devm_power_supply_register(bq->dev, &bq->desc, &psy_cfg);
As soon as devm_power_supply_register() has called device_add() the external_power_changed callback can get called. So there is a window where bq25890_charger_external_power_changed() may get called while bq->charger has not been set yet leading to a NULL pointer dereference.
This race hits during boot sometimes on a Lenovo Yoga Book 1 yb1-x90f when the cht_wcove_pwrsrc (extcon) power_supply is done with detecting the connected charger-type which happens to exactly hit the small window:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 <snip> RIP: 0010:__power_supply_is_supplied_by+0xb/0xb0 <snip> Call Trace: <TASK> __power_supply_get_supplier_property+0x19/0x50 class_for_each_device+0xb1/0xe0 power_supply_get_property_from_supplier+0x2e/0x50 bq25890_charger_external_power_changed+0x38/0x1b0 [bq25890_charger] __power_supply_changed_work+0x30/0x40 class_for_each_device+0xb1/0xe0 power_supply_changed_work+0x5f/0xe0 <snip>
Fixing this is easy. The external_power_changed callback gets passed the power_supply which will eventually get stored in bq->charger, so bq25890_charger_external_power_changed() can simply directly use the passed in psy argument which is always valid.
Weakness: CWE-362
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53166?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53166?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-53166 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53166 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53166, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53166, GHSA-x38q-rf72-5pjg, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53166.