# CVE-2023-53452: wifi: rtw89: fix potential race condition between napi_init and napi_enable

> A race condition in the Linux kernel rtw89 WiFi driver can cause a kernel crash when starting the network interface.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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:** 1 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53452, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53452, GHSA-77qf-55vf-5v3v, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53452, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53452

## What is CVE-2023-53452?

CVE-2023-53452 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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:

wifi: rtw89: fix potential race condition between napi_init and napi_enable

A race condition can happen if netdev is registered, but NAPI isn't
initialized yet, and meanwhile user space starts the netdev that will
enable NAPI. Then, it hits BUG_ON():

 kernel BUG at net/core/dev.c:6423!
 invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
 CPU: 0 PID: 417 Comm: iwd Not tainted 6.2.7-slab-dirty #3 eb0f5a8a9d91
 Hardware name: LENOVO 21DL/LNVNB161216, BIOS JPCN20WW(V1.06) 09/20/2022
 RIP: 0010:napi_enable+0x3f/0x50
 Code: 48 89 c2 48 83 e2 f6 f6 81 89 08 00 00 02 74 0d 48 83 ...
 RSP: 0018:ffffada1414f3548 EFLAGS: 00010246
 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffa01425802080 RCX: 0000000000000000
 RDX: 00000000000002ff RSI: ffffada14e50c614 RDI: ffffa01425808dc0
 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
 R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000100 R12: ffffa01425808f58
 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffffa01423498940 R15: 0000000000000001
 FS:  00007f5577c0a740(0000) GS:ffffa0169fc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 00007f5577a19972 CR3: 0000000125a7a000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0
 PKRU: 55555554
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  rtw89_pci_ops_start+0x1c/0x70 [rtw89_pci 6cbc75429515c181cbc386478d5cfb32ffc5a0f8]
  rtw89_core_start+0xbe/0x160 [rtw89_core fe07ecb874820b6d778370d4acb6ef8a37847f22]
  rtw89_ops_start+0x26/0x40 [rtw89_core fe07ecb874820b6d778370d4acb6ef8a37847f22]
  drv_start+0x42/0x100 [mac80211 c07fa22af8c3cf3f7d7ab3884ca990784d72e2d2]
  ieee80211_do_open+0x311/0x7d0 [mac80211 c07fa22af8c3cf3f7d7ab3884ca990784d72e2d2]
  ieee80211_open+0x6a/0x90 [mac80211 c07fa22af8c3cf3f7d7ab3884ca990784d72e2d2]
  __dev_open+0xe0/0x180
  __dev_change_flags+0x1da/0x250
  dev_change_flags+0x26/0x70
  do_setlink+0x37c/0x12c0
  ? ep_poll_callback+0x246/0x290
  ? __nla_validate_parse+0x61/0xd00
  ? __wake_up_common_lock+0x8f/0xd0

To fix this, follow Jonas' suggestion to switch the order of these
functions and move register netdev to be the last step of PCI probe.
Also, correct the error handling of rtw89_core_register_hw().

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53452?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53452?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53452 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53452 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-2023-53452 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53452 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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-2023-53452 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-2023-53452/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53452/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53452
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53452
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53452

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53452/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.