CVE-2023-53548 net: usbnet: Fix WARNING in usbnet_start_xmit/usb_submit_urb

Medium 5.5 Published 4 Oct 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A missing validation in the Linux kernel usbnet driver allows a local attacker to trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service via crafted USB traffic.

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-2023-53548?

CVE-2023-53548 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 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:

net: usbnet: Fix WARNING in usbnet_start_xmit/usb_submit_urb

The syzbot fuzzer identified a problem in the usbnet driver:

usb 1-1: BOGUS urb xfer, pipe 3 != type 1 WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 754 at drivers/usb/core/urb.c:504 usb_submit_urb+0xed6/0x1880 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:504 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 754 Comm: kworker/0:2 Not tainted 6.4.0-rc7-syzkaller-00014-g692b7dc87ca6 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/27/2023 Workqueue: mld mld_ifc_work RIP: 0010:usb_submit_urb+0xed6/0x1880 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:504 Code: 7c 24 18 e8 2c b4 5b fb 48 8b 7c 24 18 e8 42 07 f0 fe 41 89 d8 44 89 e1 4c 89 ea 48 89 c6 48 c7 c7 a0 c9 fc 8a e8 5a 6f 23 fb <0f> 0b e9 58 f8 ff ff e8 fe b3 5b fb 48 81 c5 c0 05 00 00 e9 84 f7 RSP: 0018:ffffc9000463f568 EFLAGS: 00010086 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: ffff88801eb28000 RSI: ffffffff814c03b7 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: ffff8881443b7190 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000003 R13: ffff88802a77cb18 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: ffff888018262500 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9800000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000556a99c15a18 CR3: 0000000028c71000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> usbnet_start_xmit+0xfe5/0x2190 drivers/net/usb/usbnet.c:1453 __netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4918 [inline] netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4932 [inline] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3578 [inline] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x187/0x700 net/core/dev.c:3594 ...

This bug is caused by the fact that usbnet trusts the bulk endpoint addresses its probe routine receives in the driver_info structure, and it does not check to see that these endpoints actually exist and have the expected type and directions.

The fix is simply to add such a check.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53548?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53548?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2023-53548 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53548 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53548, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53548, GHSA-3789-628f-hmx4, OESA-2026-1762, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53548.