CVE-2023-53532: wifi: ath11k: fix deinitialization of firmware resources

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath11k: fix deinitialization of firmware resources Currently, in ath11k_ahb_fw_resources_init(), iommu domain mapping is done only for the chipsets having fixed firmware memory. Also, for such chipsets, mapping is done only if it does not have TrustZone support. During deinitialization, only if TrustZone support is not there, iommu is unmapped back. However, for non fixed firmware memory chipsets, TrustZone support is not there and this makes the condition check to true and it tries to unmap the memory which was not mapped during initialization. This leads to the following trace - [ 83.198790] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000008 [ 83.259537] Modules linked in: ath11k_ahb ath11k qmi_helpers .. snip .. [ 83.280286] pstate: 20000005 (nzCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 83.287228] pc : __iommu_unmap+0x30/0x140 [ 83.293907] lr : iommu_unmap+0x5c/0xa4 [ 83.298072] sp : ffff80000b3abad0 .. snip .. [ 83.369175] Call trace: [ 83.376282] __iommu_unmap+0x30/0x140 [ 83.378541] iommu_unmap+0x5c/0xa4 [ 83.382360] ath11k_ahb_fw_resource_deinit.part.12+0x2c/0xac [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.385666] ath11k_ahb_free_resources+0x140/0x17c [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.392521] ath11k_ahb_shutdown+0x34/0x40 [ath11k_ahb] [ 83.398248] platform_shutdown+0x20/0x2c [ 83.403455] device_shutdown+0x16c/0x1c4 [ 83.407621] kernel_restart_prepare+0x34/0x3c [ 83.411529] kernel_restart+0x14/0x74 [ 83.415781] __do_sys_reboot+0x1c4/0x22c [ 83.419427] __arm64_sys_reboot+0x1c/0x24 [ 83.423420] invoke_syscall+0x44/0xfc [ 83.427326] el0_svc_common.constprop.3+0xac/0xe8 [ 83.430974] do_el0_svc+0xa0/0xa8 [ 83.435659] el0_svc+0x1c/0x44 [ 83.438957] el0t_64_sync_handler+0x60/0x144 [ 83.441910] el0t_64_sync+0x15c/0x160 [ 83.446343] Code: aa0103f4 f9400001 f90027a1 d2800001 (f94006a0) [ 83.449903] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- This can be reproduced by probing an AHB chipset which is not having a fixed memory region. During reboot (or rmmod) trace can be seen. Fix this issue by adding a condition check on firmware fixed memory hw_param as done in the counter initialization function. Tested-on: IPQ8074 hw2.0 AHB WLAN.HK.2.7.0.1-01744-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1

Timeline

2025
1 Oct 2025
1 Oct 2025
ID reserved
By Linux
1 Oct 2025
1 Oct 2025
Published
2026
5 Nov 202613 months later
5 Nov 2026· 13 months later
Record updated

Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2023-53532, by who scored it
Scored by	CVSS	Score	Vector
NVDNVD · Analyzed	3.1	Medium5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days): 0.15% · top 96% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
CISA SSVC: Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.5.

Weakness

CWE-908 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-908 and its CVEs

Affected products

Linux · Linux
- affected f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – < 0324300dce3412d4737b4ec5898d0188495a7caa
- affected f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – < 8faf862d81ab197757761e87d0a99fbb96ab2cf0
- affected f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – < a1548363582a8066edd4986f839d785f13dda3aa
- affected f9eec4947add999e1251bf14365a48a655b786a4 – < 5a78ac33e3cb8822da64dd1af196e83664b332b0
Linux · Linux
- affected 5.19
- unaffected < 5.19
- unaffected 6.1.28 – ≤ 6.1.*
- unaffected 6.2.15 – ≤ 6.2.*
- unaffected 6.3.2 – ≤ 6.3.*
- unaffected 6.4 – ≤ *

References (4)

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

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Record last updated 5 Nov 2026, 20:31 UTC.