CVE-2023-53459 HID: mcp-2221: prevent UAF in delayed work

What is CVE-2023-53459?

CVE-2023-53459 is a high-severity use after free 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:

HID: mcp-2221: prevent UAF in delayed work

If the device is plugged/unplugged without giving time for mcp_init_work() to complete, we might kick in the devm free code path and thus have unavailable struct mcp_2221 while in delayed work.

Canceling the delayed_work item is enough to solve the issue, because cancel_delayed_work_sync will prevent the work item to requeue itself.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53459?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53459?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2023-53459 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53459 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53459, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53459, GHSA-prrg-pvxw-q4m2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53459.