CVE-2023-53992 wifi: cfg80211: ocb: don't leave if not joined

Not scored Published 24 Dec 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A local attacker can trigger a null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel WiFi subsystem, causing a system crash.

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-2023-53992?

CVE-2023-53992 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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: cfg80211: ocb: don't leave if not joined

If there's no OCB state, don't ask the driver/mac80211 to leave, since that's just confusing. Since set/clear the chandef state, that's a simple check.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53992?

How do I fix CVE-2023-53992?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53992 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53992 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53992, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53992, GHSA-p2hw-m3qp-7p54, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53992, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53992, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53992.