{"id":"CVE-2023-53641","summary":"wifi: ath9k: hif_usb: fix memory leak of remain_skbs","details":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nwifi: ath9k: hif_usb: fix memory leak of remain_skbs\n\nhif_dev-\u003eremain_skb is allocated and used exclusively in\nath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). It is implied that an allocated remain_skb is\nprocessed and subsequently freed (in error paths) only during the next\ncall of ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream().\n\nSo, if the urbs are deallocated between those two calls due to the device\ndeinitialization or suspend, it is possible that ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream()\nis not called next time and the allocated remain_skb is leaked. Our local\nSyzkaller instance was able to trigger that.\n\nremain_skb makes sense when receiving two consecutive urbs which are\nlogically linked together, i.e. a specific data field from the first skb\nindicates a cached skb to be allocated, memcpy'd with some data and\nsubsequently processed in the next call to ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream(). Urbs\ndeallocation supposedly makes that link irrelevant so we need to free the\ncached skb in those cases.\n\nFix the leak by introducing a function to explicitly free remain_skb (if\nit is not NULL) when the rx urbs have been deallocated. remain_skb is NULL\nwhen it has not been allocated at all (hif_dev struct is kzalloced) or\nwhen it has been processed in next call to ath9k_hif_usb_rx_stream().\n\nFound by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.","modified":"2026-04-02T09:44:40.154032Z","published":"2025-10-07T15:19:41.028Z","related":["SUSE-SU-2025:4111-1","SUSE-SU-2025:4139-1","SUSE-SU-2025:4149-1","SUSE-SU-2025:4320-1","SUSE-SU-2025:4515-1"],"database_specific":{"osv_generated_from":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53641.json","cna_assigner":"Linux"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/320d760a35273aa815d58b57e4fd9ba5279a3489"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/59073060fe0950c6ecbe12bdc06469dcac62128d"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6719e3797ec52cd144c8a5ba8aaab36674800585"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7654cc03eb699297130b693ec34e25f77b17c947"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8f02d538878c9b1501f624595eb22ee4e5e0ff84"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b9356a3014123f0ce4b50d9278c1265173150ab"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d9899318660791141ea6002fda5577b2c5d7386e"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f0931fc8f4b6847c72e170d2326861c0a081d680"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53641.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53641"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","events":[{"introduced":"fb9987d0f748c983bb795a86f47522313f701a08"},{"fixed":"6719e3797ec52cd144c8a5ba8aaab36674800585"},{"fixed":"d9899318660791141ea6002fda5577b2c5d7386e"},{"fixed":"320d760a35273aa815d58b57e4fd9ba5279a3489"},{"fixed":"59073060fe0950c6ecbe12bdc06469dcac62128d"},{"fixed":"9b9356a3014123f0ce4b50d9278c1265173150ab"},{"fixed":"f0931fc8f4b6847c72e170d2326861c0a081d680"},{"fixed":"8f02d538878c9b1501f624595eb22ee4e5e0ff84"},{"fixed":"7654cc03eb699297130b693ec34e25f77b17c947"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-53641.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5"}