5.5

CVE-2023-52894: usb: gadget: f_ncm: fix potential NULL ptr deref in ncm_bitrate()

Analyzed
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52894DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52894
Published 21-08-2024Last modified 11-05-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-52894 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 15.5% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.24%
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 5 · Related 5

Timeline

  1. 21-08-2024
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 11-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: gadget: f_ncm: fix potential NULL ptr deref in ncm_bitrate() In Google internal bug 265639009 we've received an (as yet) unreproducible crash report from an aarch64 GKI 5.10.149-android13 running device. AFAICT the source code is at: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/refs/tags/ASB-2022-12-05_13-5.10 The call stack is: ncm_close() -> ncm_notify() -> ncm_do_notify() with the crash at: ncm_do_notify+0x98/0x270 Code: 79000d0b b9000a6c f940012a f9400269 (b9405d4b) Which I believe disassembles to (I don't know ARM assembly, but it looks sane enough to me...): // halfword (16-bit) store presumably to event->wLength (at offset 6 of struct usb_cdc_notification) 0B 0D 00 79 strh w11, [x8, #6] // word (32-bit) store presumably to req->Length (at offset 8 of struct usb_request) 6C 0A 00 B9 str w12, [x19, #8] // x10 (NULL) was read here from offset 0 of valid pointer x9 // IMHO we're reading 'cdev->gadget' and getting NULL // gadget is indeed at offset 0 of struct usb_composite_dev 2A 01 40 F9 ldr x10, [x9] // loading req->buf pointer, which is at offset 0 of struct usb_request 69 02 40 F9 ldr x9, [x19] // x10 is null, crash, appears to be attempt to read cdev->gadget->max_speed 4B 5D 40 B9 ldr w11, [x10, #0x5c] which seems to line up with ncm_do_notify() case NCM_NOTIFY_SPEED code fragment: event->wLength = cpu_to_le16(8); req->length = NCM_STATUS_BYTECOUNT; /* SPEED_CHANGE data is up/down speeds in bits/sec */ data = req->buf + sizeof *event; data[0] = cpu_to_le32(ncm_bitrate(cdev->gadget)); My analysis of registers and NULL ptr deref crash offset (Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 000000000000005c) heavily suggests that the crash is due to 'cdev->gadget' being NULL when executing: data[0] = cpu_to_le32(ncm_bitrate(cdev->gadget)); which calls: ncm_bitrate(NULL) which then calls: gadget_is_superspeed(NULL) which reads ((struct usb_gadget *)NULL)->max_speed and hits a panic. AFAICT, if I'm counting right, the offset of max_speed is indeed 0x5C. (remember there's a GKI KABI reservation of 16 bytes in struct work_struct) It's not at all clear to me how this is all supposed to work... but returning 0 seems much better than panic-ing...

CVSS metrics

3 scores · 3 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.24%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

16%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 0.24% 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: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu113 products
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-209.220 | < 5.4.0-147.164 | < 5.15.0-70.77
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-1154.167 | < 5.4.0-1100.108 | < 5.15.0-1034.38
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < fef6b29671b66dfb71f17e337c1ad14b5a2cedae | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < 63d161f29cd39c050e8873aa36e0c9fc013bb763 | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < a21da7f7aae618c785f7e4a275d43c06dc8412b6 | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < e92c70059178da751e5af7de02384b7dfadb5ec7 | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < a69c8dfb85b44be9cc223be07d35cc3a9baefbea | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < 09e4507ec8ef2d44da6ba4092b8ee2d81f216497 | ≥ 1650113888fe7b7e16604a5019c32dd3ddeb3af2, < c6ec929595c7443250b2a4faea988c62019d5cd2 | 4.9
  • linux_kernel< 4.14.304 | ≥ 4.15, < 4.19.271 | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.230 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.165 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.90 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.8 | 6.2:rc1 | 6.2:rc2 | 6.2:rc3 | 6.2:rc4
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.8-1

3 vendors · 116 products

References

11 links
Show all 11 references