CVE-2023-53119: nfc: pn533: initialize struct pn533_out_arg properly

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-05-02 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-908

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfc: pn533: initialize struct pn533_out_arg properly struct pn533_out_arg used as a temporary context for out_urb is not initialized properly. Its uninitialized 'phy' field can be dereferenced in error cases inside pn533_out_complete() callback function. It causes the following failure: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-next-20230110-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 10/26/2022 RIP: 0010:pn533_out_complete.cold+0x15/0x44 drivers/nfc/pn533/usb.c:441 Call Trace: <IRQ> __usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x2b6/0x5c0 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1671 usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x384/0x430 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1754 dummy_timer+0x1203/0x32d0 drivers/usb/gadget/udc/dummy_hcd.c:1988 call_timer_fn+0x1da/0x800 kernel/time/timer.c:1700 expire_timers+0x234/0x330 kernel/time/timer.c:1751 __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:2022 [inline] __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1995 [inline] run_timer_softirq+0x326/0x910 kernel/time/timer.c:2035 __do_softirq+0x1fb/0xaf6 kernel/softirq.c:571 invoke_softirq kernel/softirq.c:445 [inline] __irq_exit_rcu+0x123/0x180 kernel/softirq.c:650 irq_exit_rcu+0x9/0x20 kernel/softirq.c:662 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x97/0xc0 arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1107 Initialize the field with the pn533_usb_phy currently used. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.14.303 before 4.14.311; from 4.19.270 before 4.19.279; from 5.4.229 before 5.4.238; from 5.10.164 before 5.10.176; from 5.15.89 before 5.15.104; from 6.1.7 before 6.1.21 — fixed in 4.14.311, 4.19.279, 5.10.176, 5.15.104, 5.4.238, 6.1.21

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.14.311, 4.19.279, 5.10.176, 5.15.104. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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