# CVE-2023-53561: net: wwan: iosm: fix NULL pointer dereference when removing device

> A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel WWAN driver can cause a system crash during device removal or suspend/resume cycles.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 4 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-77435, BELL-CVE-2023-53561, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53561, GHSA-44pm-q7mw-v83g, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53561, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53561

## What is CVE-2023-53561?

CVE-2023-53561 is a medium-severity 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: wwan: iosm: fix NULL pointer dereference when removing device

In suspend and resume cycle, the removal and rescan of device ends
up in NULL pointer dereference.

During driver initialization, if the ipc_imem_wwan_channel_init()
fails to get the valid device capabilities it returns an error and
further no resource (wwan struct) will be allocated. Now in this
situation if driver removal procedure is initiated it would result
in NULL pointer exception since unallocated wwan struct is dereferenced
inside ipc_wwan_deinit().

ipc_imem_run_state_worker() to handle the called functions return value
and to release the resource in failure case. It also reports the link
down event in failure cases. The user space application can handle this
event to do a device reset for restoring the device communication.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53561?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53561?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53561 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53561 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-2023-53561 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53561 is a medium-severity 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53561 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-2023-53561/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53561/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53561
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53561
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53561

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53561/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.