# CVE-2023-53565: wifi: brcmfmac: Check for probe() id argument being NULL

> A null pointer dereference in the brcmfmac WiFi driver causes a kernel crash during device resume or manual binding, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** BELL-CVE-2023-53565, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53565, GHSA-5hv8-xrrg-hm72, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53565

## What is CVE-2023-53565?

CVE-2023-53565 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:

wifi: brcmfmac: Check for probe() id argument being NULL

The probe() id argument may be NULL in 2 scenarios:

1. brcmf_pcie_pm_leave_D3() calling brcmf_pcie_probe() to reprobe
   the device.

2. If a user tries to manually bind the driver from sysfs then the sdio /
   pcie / usb probe() function gets called with NULL as id argument.

1. Is being hit by users causing the following oops on resume and causing
wifi to stop working:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
<snip>
Hardware name: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9350/0PWNCR, BIDS 1.13.0 02/10/2020
Workgueue: events_unbound async_run_entry_fn
RIP: 0010:brcmf_pcie_probe+Ox16b/0x7a0 [brcmfmac]
<snip>
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 brcmf_pcie_pm_leave_D3+0xc5/8x1a0 [brcmfmac be3b4cefca451e190fa35be8f00db1bbec293887]
 ? pci_pm_resume+0x5b/0xf0
 ? pci_legacy_resume+0x80/0x80
 dpm_run_callback+0x47/0x150
 device_resume+0xa2/0x1f0
 async_resume+0x1d/0x30
<snip>

Fix this by checking for id being NULL.

In the PCI and USB cases try a manual lookup of the id so that manually
binding the driver through sysfs and more importantly brcmf_pcie_probe()
on resume will work.

For the SDIO case there is no helper to do a manual sdio_device_id lookup,
so just directly error out on a NULL id there.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53565?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53565?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53565 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53565 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-2023-53565 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53565 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-2023-53565 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-2023-53565/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53565/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53565
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53565
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53565

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53565/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.