CVE-2023-53589 wifi: iwlwifi: mvm: don't trust firmware n_channels
A corrupted firmware response in the iwlwifi driver can cause memory corruption, leading to system crashes or potential information disclosure.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-53589?
CVE-2023-53589 is a high-severity memory corruption 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: iwlwifi: mvm: don't trust firmware n_channels
If the firmware sends us a corrupted MCC response with n_channels much larger than the command response can be, we might copy far too much (uninitialized) memory and even crash if the n_channels is large enough to make it run out of the one page allocated for the FW response.
Fix that by checking the lengths. Doing a < comparison would be sufficient, but the firmware should be doing it correctly, so check more strictly.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53589?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53589?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2023-53589 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53589 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53589, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53589, GHSA-fh27-hfj9-ccqv, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53589.