CVE-2023-53281 drivers: staging: rtl8723bs: Fix locking in _rtw_join_timeout_handler()
A locking error in the rtl8723bs Wi-Fi driver causes a kernel oops and system crash when handling join timeouts.
- 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-2023-53281?
CVE-2023-53281 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 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:
drivers: staging: rtl8723bs: Fix locking in _rtw_join_timeout_handler()
Commit 041879b12ddb ("drivers: staging: rtl8192bs: Fix deadlock in rtw_joinbss_event_prehandle()") besides fixing the deadlock also modified _rtw_join_timeout_handler() to use spin_[un]lock_irq() instead of spin_[un]lock_bh().
_rtw_join_timeout_handler() calls rtw_do_join() which takes pmlmepriv->scanned_queue.lock using spin_[un]lock_bh(). This spin_unlock_bh() call re-enables softirqs which triggers an oops in kernel/softirq.c: __local_bh_enable_ip() when it calls lockdep_assert_irqs_enabled():
[ 244.506087] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 0 at kernel/softirq.c:376 __local_bh_enable_ip+0xa6/0x100 ... [ 244.509022] Call Trace: [ 244.509048] <IRQ> [ 244.509100] _rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x134/0x170 [r8723bs] [ 244.509468] ? __pfx__rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x10/0x10 [r8723bs] [ 244.509772] ? __pfx__rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x10/0x10 [r8723bs] [ 244.510076] call_timer_fn+0x95/0x2a0 [ 244.510200] __run_timers.part.0+0x1da/0x2d0
This oops is causd by the switch to spin_[un]lock_irq() which disables the IRQs for the entire duration of _rtw_join_timeout_handler().
Disabling the IRQs is not necessary since all code taking this lock runs from either user contexts or from softirqs, switch back to spin_[un]lock_bh() to fix this.
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53281?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53281?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-53281 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53281 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53281, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53281, GHSA-vjmw-vhp2-pcr2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53281.