Local crash via unchecked allocation failure
Published Dec 27, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL-pointer dereference in the Realtek USB2 PHY driver in Linux 6.6 and 6.9 allows local users to crash the kernel. rtk_usb2phy_probe() fails to test the second devm_kzalloc() result before passing the resulting phy_cfg pointer to memcpy(), which dereferences NULL on allocation failure. Low-privileged local access is required, and the resulting impact is a kernel crash without reported data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
NULL-pointer dereference in the Realtek USB2 PHY driver in Linux 6.6 and 6.9 allows local users to crash the kernel. rtk_usb2phy_probe() fails to test the second devm_kzalloc() result before passing the resulting phy_cfg pointer to memcpy(), which dereferences NULL on allocation failure. Low-privileged local access is required, and the resulting impact is a kernel crash without reported data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-53205
- Published
- Dec 27, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 27, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=134e6d25f6bd06071e5aac0a7eefcea6f7713955 <7a784bcdd7e54f0599da3b2360e472238412623e
- Affected versionversion=134e6d25f6bd06071e5aac0a7eefcea6f7713955 <7e2cde1813418b39b5e95d86e10d6701dccf18af
- Affected versionversion=6.6
- Affected versionversion=6.9
- Affected versionversion=eeda494542e55b603c7b80e14bfc5ee4ab7f9814 <04e3e9188291a183b27306ddb833722c0d083d6a
- Affected versionversion=eeda494542e55b603c7b80e14bfc5ee4ab7f9814 <0b398b6b6c94315fd2ce3658e3cee96539dbd7b7
- Affected versionversion=eeda494542e55b603c7b80e14bfc5ee4ab7f9814 <fb83c9a08324e37f321ffb400809aa4310387d65
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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