---
id: CVE-2023-53529
title: 'wifi: rtw88: Fix memory leak in rtw88_usb'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  wifi: rtw88: Fix memory leak in rtw88_usb

  Kmemleak shows the following leak arising from routine in the usb
  probe routine:

  unreferenced object 0xffff895cb29bba00 (siz…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= e3037485c68ec1a299ff41160d8fedbd4abc29b9 <
    5bba1ad561a8b5bb14704d8f511cf10466336e3d
  - >-
    Linux >= e3037485c68ec1a299ff41160d8fedbd4abc29b9 <
    59a3a312009723e3e5082899655fdcc420e2b47a
  - Linux 5.2
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T20:23:24.026154Z'
published: '2025-10-01'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T20:31:13.888Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53529'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5bba1ad561a8b5bb14704d8f511cf10466336e3d'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/59a3a312009723e3e5082899655fdcc420e2b47a'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.0013
epssPercentile: 0.0268
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:31.808Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

wifi: rtw88: Fix memory leak in rtw88_usb

Kmemleak shows the following leak arising from routine in the usb
probe routine:

unreferenced object 0xffff895cb29bba00 (size 512):
  comm "(udev-worker)", pid 534, jiffies 4294903932 (age 102751.088s)
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    77 30 30 30 00 00 00 00 02 2f 2d 2b 30 00 00 00  w000...../-+0...
    02 00 2a 28 00 00 00 00 ff 55 ff ff ff 00 00 00  ..*(.....U......
  backtrace:
    [<ffffffff9265fa36>] kmalloc_trace+0x26/0x90
    [<ffffffffc17eec41>] rtw_usb_probe+0x2f1/0x680 [rtw_usb]
    [<ffffffffc03e19fd>] usb_probe_interface+0xdd/0x2e0 [usbcore]
    [<ffffffff92b4f2fe>] really_probe+0x18e/0x3d0
    [<ffffffff92b4f5b8>] __driver_probe_device+0x78/0x160
    [<ffffffff92b4f6bf>] driver_probe_device+0x1f/0x90
    [<ffffffff92b4f8df>] __driver_attach+0xbf/0x1b0
    [<ffffffff92b4d350>] bus_for_each_dev+0x70/0xc0
    [<ffffffff92b4e51e>] bus_add_driver+0x10e/0x210
    [<ffffffff92b50935>] driver_register+0x55/0xf0
    [<ffffffffc03e0708>] usb_register_driver+0x88/0x140 [usbcore]
    [<ffffffff92401153>] do_one_initcall+0x43/0x210
    [<ffffffff9254f42a>] do_init_module+0x4a/0x200
    [<ffffffff92551d1c>] __do_sys_finit_module+0xac/0x120
    [<ffffffff92ee6626>] do_syscall_64+0x56/0x80
    [<ffffffff9300006a>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

The leak was verified to be real by unloading the driver, which resulted
in a dangling pointer to the allocation.

The allocated memory is freed in rtw_usb_intf_deinit().

## Affected

- `Linux >= e3037485c68ec1a299ff41160d8fedbd4abc29b9 < 5bba1ad561a8b5bb14704d8f511cf10466336e3d`
- `Linux >= e3037485c68ec1a299ff41160d8fedbd4abc29b9 < 59a3a312009723e3e5082899655fdcc420e2b47a`
- `Linux 5.2`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.