# CVE-2023-53822: wifi: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.

> A null pointer dereference in the ath11k WiFi driver causes a kernel crash when processing fragments from uninitialized peers, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53822, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53822, GHSA-pvmh-4xqr-52x7, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53822, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53822, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53822

## What is CVE-2023-53822?

CVE-2023-53822 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.

When max virtual ap interfaces are configured in all the bands with
ACS and hostapd restart is done every 60s, a crash is observed at
random times.
In this certain scenario, a fragmented packet is received for
self peer, for which rx_tid and rx_frags are not initialized in
datapath. While handling this fragment, crash is observed as the
rx_frag list is uninitialised and when we walk in
ath11k_dp_rx_h_sort_frags, skb null leads to exception.

To address this, before processing received fragments we check
dp_setup_done flag is set to ensure that peer has completed its
dp peer setup for fragment queue, else ignore processing the
fragments.

Call trace:
  ath11k_dp_process_rx_err+0x550/0x1084 [ath11k]
  ath11k_dp_service_srng+0x70/0x370 [ath11k]
  0xffffffc009693a04
  __napi_poll+0x30/0xa4
  net_rx_action+0x118/0x270
  __do_softirq+0x10c/0x244
  irq_exit+0x64/0xb4
  __handle_domain_irq+0x88/0xac
  gic_handle_irq+0x74/0xbc
  el1_irq+0xf0/0x1c0
  arch_cpu_idle+0x10/0x18
  do_idle+0x104/0x248
  cpu_startup_entry+0x20/0x64
  rest_init+0xd0/0xdc
  arch_call_rest_init+0xc/0x14
  start_kernel+0x480/0x4b8
  Code: f9400281 f94066a2 91405021 b94a0023 (f9406401)

Tested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53822?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53822?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53822 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53822 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53822 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53822 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2023-53822 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53822/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53822/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53822
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53822
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53822

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53822/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.