# CVE-2023-53392: HID: intel-ish-hid: Fix kernel panic during warm reset

> A null pointer dereference in the Intel ISH HID driver causes a kernel panic during warm reset, leading to system denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53392, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53392, GHSA-h5fg-gggq-x5vh, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53392

## What is CVE-2023-53392?

CVE-2023-53392 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

HID: intel-ish-hid: Fix kernel panic during warm reset

During warm reset device->fw_client is set to NULL. If a bus driver is
registered after this NULL setting and before new firmware clients are
enumerated by ISHTP, kernel panic will result in the function
ishtp_cl_bus_match(). This is because of reference to
device->fw_client->props.protocol_name.

ISH firmware after getting successfully loaded, sends a warm reset
notification to remove all clients from the bus and sets
device->fw_client to NULL. Until kernel v5.15, all enabled ISHTP kernel
module drivers were loaded right after any of the first ISHTP device was
registered, regardless of whether it was a matched or an unmatched
device. This resulted in all drivers getting registered much before the
warm reset notification from ISH.

Starting kernel v5.16, this issue got exposed after the change was
introduced to load only bus drivers for the respective matching devices.
In this scenario, cros_ec_ishtp device and cros_ec_ishtp driver are
registered after the warm reset device fw_client NULL setting.
cros_ec_ishtp driver_register() triggers the callback to
ishtp_cl_bus_match() to match ISHTP driver to the device and causes kernel
panic in guid_equal() when dereferencing fw_client NULL pointer to get
protocol_name.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53392?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53392?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53392 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53392 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53392 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53392 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53392 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53392/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53392/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53392
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53392
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53392

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53392/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.