CVE-2023-53232 mt76: mt7921: fix kernel panic by accessing unallocated eeprom.data

High 7.1 Published 15 Sep 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A null pointer dereference in the MT7921 Wi-Fi driver causes a kernel panic, leading to system 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-2023-53232?

CVE-2023-53232 is a high-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:

mt76: mt7921: fix kernel panic by accessing unallocated eeprom.data

The MT7921 driver no longer uses eeprom.data, but the relevant code has not been removed completely since commit 16d98b548365 ("mt76: mt7921: rely on mcu_get_nic_capability"). This could result in potential invalid memory access.

To fix the kernel panic issue in mt7921, it is necessary to avoid accessing unallocated eeprom.data which can lead to invalid memory access.

Furthermore, it is possible to entirely eliminate the mt7921_mcu_parse_eeprom function and solely depend on mt7921_mcu_parse_response to divide the RxD header.

[2.702735] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000550 [2.702740] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [2.702741] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [2.702743] PGD 0 P4D 0 [2.702747] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [2.702755] RIP: 0010:mt7921_mcu_parse_response+0x147/0x170 [mt7921_common] [2.702758] RSP: 0018:ffffae7c00fef828 EFLAGS: 00010286 [2.702760] RAX: ffffa367f57be024 RBX: ffffa367cc7bf500 RCX: 0000000000000000 [2.702762] RDX: 0000000000000550 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffa367cc7bf500 [2.702763] RBP: ffffae7c00fef840 R08: ffffa367cb167000 R09: 0000000000000005 [2.702764] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffffffffc04702e4 R12: ffffa367e8329f40 [2.702766] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: ffffa367e8329f40 [2.702768] FS: 000079ee6cf20c40(0000) GS:ffffa36b2f940000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [2.702769] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [2.702775] CR2: 0000000000000550 CR3: 00000001233c6004 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [2.702776] PKRU: 55555554 [2.702777] Call Trace: [2.702782] mt76_mcu_skb_send_and_get_msg+0xc3/0x11e [mt76 <HASH:1bc4 5>] [2.702785] mt7921_run_firmware+0x241/0x853 [mt7921_common <HASH:6a2f 6>] [2.702789] mt7921e_mcu_init+0x2b/0x56 [mt7921e <HASH:d290 7>] [2.702792] mt7921_register_device+0x2eb/0x5a5 [mt7921_common <HASH:6a2f 6>] [2.702795] ? mt7921_irq_tasklet+0x1d4/0x1d4 [mt7921e <HASH:d290 7>] [2.702797] mt7921_pci_probe+0x2d6/0x319 [mt7921e <HASH:d290 7>] [2.702799] pci_device_probe+0x9f/0x12a

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53232?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53232?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53232 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53232 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53232, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53232, GHSA-mhw2-58jv-2mcg, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53232.