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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-53176

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-09-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.14.316 / 4.19.284 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: 8250: Reinit port->pm on port specific driver unbind When we unbind a serial port hardware specific 8250 driver, the generic serial8250 driver takes over the port. After that we see an oops about 10 seconds later. This can produce the following at least on some TI SoCs: Unhandled fault: imprecise external abort (0x1406) Internal error: : 1406 [#1] SMP ARM Turns out that we may still have the serial port hardware specific driver port->pm in use, and serial8250_pm() tries to call it after the port specific driver is gone: serial8250_pm [8250_base] from uart_change_pm+0x54/0x8c [serial_base] uart_change_pm [serial_base] from uart_hangup+0x154/0x198 [serial_base] uart_hangup [serial_base] from __tty_hangup.part.0+0x328/0x37c __tty_hangup.part.0 from disassociate_ctty+0x154/0x20c disassociate_ctty from do_exit+0x744/0xaac do_exit from do_group_exit+0x40/0x8c do_group_exit from __wake_up_parent+0x0/0x1c Let's fix the issue by calling serial8250_set_defaults() in serial8250_unregister_port(). This will set the port back to using the serial8250 default functions, and sets the port->pm to point to serial8250_pm.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:< 4.14.316>= 4.15, < 4.19.284>= 4.20, < 5.4.244>= 5.5, < 5.10.181>= 5.11, < 5.15.113>= 5.16, < 6.1.30>= 6.2, < 6.3.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.14.316 / 4.19.284 / 5.4.244 or later
Fixed in 4.14.3164.19.2845.4.244
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel >= 4.14.316, >= 4.19.284, >= 5.4.244, or >= 5.10.181 depending on your branch

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Determine which kernel branch your version belongs to (4.14.x, 4.19.x, 5.4.x, or 5.10.x)
  3. Upgrade to a kernel version that includes the fix: for 4.14.x upgrade to >= 4.14.316, for 4.19.x upgrade to >= 4.19.284, for 5.4.x upgrade to >= 5.4.244, or for 5.10.x upgrade to >= 5.10.181
  4. After upgrading, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking that serial8250_set_defaults() is called in serial8250_unregister_port() in the new kernel source
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuild of out-of-tree modules and could introduce regression; ensure compatibility with userspace and hardware before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-53176 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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