CVE-2026-31660: nfc: pn533: allocate rx skb before consuming bytes

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-04-24 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfc: pn533: allocate rx skb before consuming bytes pn532_receive_buf() reports the number of accepted bytes to the serdev core. The current code consumes bytes into recv_skb and may already hand a complete frame to pn533_recv_frame() before allocating a fresh receive buffer. If that alloc_skb() fails, the callback returns 0 even though it has already consumed bytes, and it leaves recv_skb as NULL for the next receive callback. That breaks the receive_buf() accounting contract and can also lead to a NULL dereference on the next skb_put_u8(). Allocate the receive skb lazily before consuming the next byte instead. If allocation fails, return the number of bytes already accepted.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.5.1 before 5.10.253; from 5.11 before 5.15.203; from 5.16 before 6.1.169; from 6.2 before 6.6.135; from 6.7 before 6.12.82; from 6.13 before 6.18.23 — fixed in 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.169, 6.12.82, 6.18.23, 6.19.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.169, 6.12.82. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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