6.4

CVE-2023-52886: USB: core: Fix race by not overwriting udev->descriptor in hub_port_init()

Modified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52886DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52886
Published 16-07-2024Last modified 23-05-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-52886 is a medium (CVSS 6.4) Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.33% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 26% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 6.4, physical access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
6.4/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.33%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 10 · Related 10

Timeline

  1. 16-07-2024
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 23-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: USB: core: Fix race by not overwriting udev->descriptor in hub_port_init() Syzbot reported an out-of-bounds read in sysfs.c:read_descriptors(): BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in read_descriptors+0x263/0x280 drivers/usb/core/sysfs.c:883 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88801e78b8c8 by task udevd/5011 CPU: 0 PID: 5011 Comm: udevd Not tainted 6.4.0-rc6-syzkaller-00195-g40f71e7cd3c6 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/27/2023 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xd9/0x150 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x2c/0x3c0 mm/kasan/report.c:351 print_report mm/kasan/report.c:462 [inline] kasan_report+0x11c/0x130 mm/kasan/report.c:572 read_descriptors+0x263/0x280 drivers/usb/core/sysfs.c:883 ... Allocated by task 758: ... __do_kmalloc_node mm/slab_common.c:966 [inline] __kmalloc+0x5e/0x190 mm/slab_common.c:979 kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:563 [inline] kzalloc include/linux/slab.h:680 [inline] usb_get_configuration+0x1f7/0x5170 drivers/usb/core/config.c:887 usb_enumerate_device drivers/usb/core/hub.c:2407 [inline] usb_new_device+0x12b0/0x19d0 drivers/usb/core/hub.c:2545 As analyzed by Khazhy Kumykov, the cause of this bug is a race between read_descriptors() and hub_port_init(): The first routine uses a field in udev->descriptor, not expecting it to change, while the second overwrites it. Prior to commit 45bf39f8df7f ("USB: core: Don't hold device lock while reading the "descriptors" sysfs file") this race couldn't occur, because the routines were mutually exclusive thanks to the device locking. Removing that locking from read_descriptors() exposed it to the race. The best way to fix the bug is to keep hub_port_init() from changing udev->descriptor once udev has been initialized and registered. Drivers expect the descriptors stored in the kernel to be immutable; we should not undermine this expectation. In fact, this change should have been made long ago. So now hub_port_init() will take an additional argument, specifying a buffer in which to store the device descriptor it reads. (If udev has not yet been initialized, the buffer pointer will be NULL and then hub_port_init() will store the device descriptor in udev as before.) This eliminates the data race responsible for the out-of-bounds read. The changes to hub_port_init() appear more extensive than they really are, because of indentation changes resulting from an attempt to avoid writing to other parts of the usb_device structure after it has been initialized. Similar changes should be made to the code that reads the BOS descriptor, but that can be handled in a separate patch later on. This patch is sufficient to fix the bug found by syzbot.

CVSS metrics

4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

0.33%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

26%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.33% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: physical access, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu106 products
  • linux< 5.4.0-169.187 | < 5.15.0-91.101
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws< 5.4.0-1116.126 | < 5.15.0-1051.56
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 218925bfd5d1436e337c4f961e9c149fbe32de6d, < 9d241c5d9a9b7ad95c90c6520272fe404d5ac88f | ≥ 77358093331e9769855140bf94a3f00ecdcf4bb1, < 7fe9d87996062f5eb0ca476ad0257f79bf43aaf5 | ≥ c87fb861ec185fdc578b4fdc6a05920b6a843840, < 8186596a663506b1124bede9fde6f243ef9f37ee | ≥ 45bf39f8df7f05efb83b302c65ae3b9bc92b7065, < b4a074b1fb222164ed7d5c0b8c922dc4a0840848 | ≥ 45bf39f8df7f05efb83b302c65ae3b9bc92b7065, < b9fbfb349eacc0820f91c797d7f0a3ac7a4935b5 | ≥ 45bf39f8df7f05efb83b302c65ae3b9bc92b7065, < ff33299ec8bb80cdcc073ad9c506bd79bb2ed20b | 6badaf880edf51a2da7a439699676394dfdef3e5 | 5f35b5d3bd6914c68f743741443dfd3a64b0e455 | a1e89c8b29d003a20ed2dae6bdae1598d1f23e42 | 1bcb238c54a9c6dc4bded06b06ba7458a5eefa87 | ≥ 5.10.171, < 5.10.195 | ≥ 5.15.97, < 5.15.132 | ≥ 6.1.15, < 6.1.53 | ≥ 4.14.308, < 4.15 | ≥ 4.19.275, < 4.20 | ≥ 5.4.234, < 5.5 | ≥ 6.2.2, < 6.3 | 6.3
  • linux_kernel≥ 5.10.171, < 5.10.195 | ≥ 5.15.97, < 5.15.132 | ≥ 6.1.15, < 6.1.53 | ≥ 6.3, < 6.4.16 | ≥ 6.5, < 6.5.3
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.55-1 | < 6.5.3-1

3 vendors · 109 products

References

10 links