USB Device Driver Impacts in Linux Kernel

CVE-2023-53523

What is CVE-2023-53523?

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's gs_usb device driver occurs when the driver is unloaded before the interface is shut down. This leads to a race condition where a NULL pointer dereference can happen due to improper handling of cycle counter initialization. When the gs_usb_disconnect function is executed, it kills all pending bulk URBs, but a queued CAN frame can still be received, causing issues during device reset due to uninitialized timestamps. A fix is required to reorder the initialization of the cycle counter to prevent potential NULL pointer dereference and ensure stable CAN channel operation across multi-channel devices.

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