CVE-2023-53822 (GCVE-0-2023-53822)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-12-09 01:29 – Updated: 2026-10-15 21:41
VLAI
Title
wifi: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.
Summary
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
Severity
8.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SSVC
Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: total
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2026-10-15 21:37 UTC
Assigner
Linux CNA under the mitre root
CNA scorecard D 53/100 over 6639 records in the last 180 days details
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
Linux Linux Affected: d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d , < e78526a06b53718bfc1dfff37864c7760e41f8ec (git)
Affected: d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d , < 41efc47f5bc53e63461579e206adc17c4452ab6e (git)
Affected: d5c65159f2895379e11ca13f62feabe93278985d , < a06bfb3c9f69f303692cdae87bc0899d2ae8b2a6 (git)
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Linux Linux Affected: 5.6
Unaffected: 0 , < 5.6 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.1.30 , ≤ 6.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.3.4 , ≤ 6.3.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.4 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
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            "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.\n\nWhen max virtual ap interfaces are configured in all the bands with\nACS and hostapd restart is done every 60s, a crash is observed at\nrandom times.\nIn this certain scenario, a fragmented packet is received for\nself peer, for which rx_tid and rx_frags are not initialized in\ndatapath. While handling this fragment, crash is observed as the\nrx_frag list is uninitialised and when we walk in\nath11k_dp_rx_h_sort_frags, skb null leads to exception.\n\nTo address this, before processing received fragments we check\ndp_setup_done flag is set to ensure that peer has completed its\ndp peer setup for fragment queue, else ignore processing the\nfragments.\n\nCall trace:\n  ath11k_dp_process_rx_err+0x550/0x1084 [ath11k]\n  ath11k_dp_service_srng+0x70/0x370 [ath11k]\n  0xffffffc009693a04\n  __napi_poll+0x30/0xa4\n  net_rx_action+0x118/0x270\n  __do_softirq+0x10c/0x244\n  irq_exit+0x64/0xb4\n  __handle_domain_irq+0x88/0xac\n  gic_handle_irq+0x74/0xbc\n  el1_irq+0xf0/0x1c0\n  arch_cpu_idle+0x10/0x18\n  do_idle+0x104/0x248\n  cpu_startup_entry+0x20/0x64\n  rest_init+0xd0/0xdc\n  arch_call_rest_init+0xc/0x14\n  start_kernel+0x480/0x4b8\n  Code: f9400281 f94066a2 91405021 b94a0023 (f9406401)\n\nTested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1"
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        "id": "CVE-2023-53822",
        "lastModified": "2026-10-15T22:17:49.530",
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                  "status": "unaffected",
                  "version": "6.3.4",
                  "versionType": "semver"
                },
                {
                  "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
                  "status": "unaffected",
                  "version": "6.4",
                  "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "cpeApplicability": [
            {
              "nodes": [
                {
                  "cpeMatch": [
                    {
                      "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                      "versionEndExcluding": "6.1.30",
                      "versionStartIncluding": "5.6",
                      "vulnerable": true
                    },
                    {
                      "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                      "versionEndExcluding": "6.3.4",
                      "versionStartIncluding": "5.6",
                      "vulnerable": true
                    },
                    {
                      "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                      "versionEndExcluding": "6.4",
                      "versionStartIncluding": "5.6",
                      "vulnerable": true
                    }
                  ],
                  "negate": false,
                  "operator": "OR"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.\n\nWhen max virtual ap interfaces are configured in all the bands with\nACS and hostapd restart is done every 60s, a crash is observed at\nrandom times.\nIn this certain scenario, a fragmented packet is received for\nself peer, for which rx_tid and rx_frags are not initialized in\ndatapath. While handling this fragment, crash is observed as the\nrx_frag list is uninitialised and when we walk in\nath11k_dp_rx_h_sort_frags, skb null leads to exception.\n\nTo address this, before processing received fragments we check\ndp_setup_done flag is set to ensure that peer has completed its\ndp peer setup for fragment queue, else ignore processing the\nfragments.\n\nCall trace:\n  ath11k_dp_process_rx_err+0x550/0x1084 [ath11k]\n  ath11k_dp_service_srng+0x70/0x370 [ath11k]\n  0xffffffc009693a04\n  __napi_poll+0x30/0xa4\n  net_rx_action+0x118/0x270\n  __do_softirq+0x10c/0x244\n  irq_exit+0x64/0xb4\n  __handle_domain_irq+0x88/0xac\n  gic_handle_irq+0x74/0xbc\n  el1_irq+0xf0/0x1c0\n  arch_cpu_idle+0x10/0x18\n  do_idle+0x104/0x248\n  cpu_startup_entry+0x20/0x64\n  rest_init+0xd0/0xdc\n  arch_call_rest_init+0xc/0x14\n  start_kernel+0x480/0x4b8\n  Code: f9400281 f94066a2 91405021 b94a0023 (f9406401)\n\nTested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1"
            }
          ],
          "metrics": [
            {
              "cvssV3_1": {
                "baseScore": 8.8,
                "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
                "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
                "version": "3.1"
              },
              "scenarios": [
                {
                  "lang": "en",
                  "value": "AV:A - Triggered purely by receiving a crafted fragmented 802.11 MPDU on the ath11k radio (HW IRQ \u2192 NAPI \u2192 `ath11k_dp_process_rx_err`), requiring only that the attacker be within WiFi range of the AP. Per kernel guidance, WiFi frame injection is Adjacent.\nAC:L - The self peer, keyed by the AP\u0027s own MAC (the publicly broadcast BSSID), permanently has a zeroed `rx_tid[]` because `ath11k_dp_peer_setup()` is never called for it, so injecting one fragmented unicast frame with TA=BSSID deterministically walks a NULL-linked `rx_frags` list \u2014 no race and no memory-layout dependency. For the post-cleanup UAF window the attacker drives both sides by deauthenticating itself while streaming fragments.\nPR:N - Fragments are dispatched from the REO exception ring on HW peer-ID lookup alone; `ath11k_dp_rx_frag_h_mpdu()` never checks `peer-\u003eis_authorized`, and no association, 4-way handshake, or key material is required. A raw monitor-mode injector with no credentials reaches the vulnerable code.\nUI:N - The frame is processed automatically in softirq context by the driver\u0027s NAPI RX-error path with no action by any local user or administrator.\nS:U - The corruption and the crash are confined to the kernel\u0027s own memory and the WLAN driver, with no crossing into a different security authority such as a hypervisor or IOMMU domain.\nC:H - The same fix guards a use-after-free of `struct ath11k_peer` \u2014 an armed `frag_timer` and a dangling `tfm_mmic` surviving `kfree(peer)` \u2014 and a UAF lets the attacker groom the reclaimed slab to read back kernel memory. Per guidance, use-after-free is scored High.\nI:H - The post-cleanup UAF yields a `kfree()` of a pointer read from freed memory plus an indirect call through a freed `crypto_shash`, both classic write/control-flow-hijack primitives; the uninitialized-list path additionally performs `__skb_insert()` writes through NULL-linked pointers.\nA:H - An unauthenticated adjacent attacker deterministically causes a NULL-pointer dereference inside `ath11k_dp_rx_h_sort_frags()` in softirq/NAPI context, which is a fatal exception in interrupt context on the affected embedded AP platforms \u2014 full kernel panic and loss of the device."
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "providerMetadata": {
            "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T09:16:13.643Z",
            "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
            "shortName": "Linux"
          },
          "references": [
            {
              "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e78526a06b53718bfc1dfff37864c7760e41f8ec"
            },
            {
              "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/41efc47f5bc53e63461579e206adc17c4452ab6e"
            },
            {
              "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a06bfb3c9f69f303692cdae87bc0899d2ae8b2a6"
            }
          ],
          "title": "wifi: ath11k: Ignore frags from uninitialized peer in dp.",
          "x_generator": {
            "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
          }
        }
      },
      "cveMetadata": {
        "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "assignerShortName": "Linux",
        "cveId": "CVE-2023-53822",
        "datePublished": "2025-12-09T01:29:35.206Z",
        "dateReserved": "2025-12-09T01:27:17.824Z",
        "dateUpdated": "2026-10-15T21:41:36.712Z",
        "state": "PUBLISHED"
      },
      "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
      "dataVersion": "5.2"
    }
  }
}



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