Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-53331
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pstore/ram: Check start of empty przs during init After commit 30696378f68a ("pstore/ram: Do not treat empty buffers as valid"), initialization would assume a prz was valid after seeing that the buffer_size is zero (regardless of the buffer start position). This unchecked start value means it could be outside the bounds of the buffer, leading to future access panics when written to: sysdump_panic_event+0x3b4/0x5b8 atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x54/0x90 panic+0x1c8/0x42c die+0x29c/0x2a8 die_kernel_fault+0x68/0x78 __do_kernel_fault+0x1c4/0x1e0 do_bad_area+0x40/0x100 do_translation_fault+0x68/0x80 do_mem_abort+0x68/0xf8 el1_da+0x1c/0xc0 __raw_writeb+0x38/0x174 __memcpy_toio+0x40/0xac persistent_ram_update+0x44/0x12c persistent_ram_write+0x1a8/0x1b8 ramoops_pstore_write+0x198/0x1e8 pstore_console_write+0x94/0xe0 ... To avoid this, also check if the prz start is 0 during the initialization phase. If not, the next prz sanity check case will discover it (start > size) and zap the buffer back to a sane state. [kees: update commit log with backtrace and clarifications]
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 analysisThe program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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
>= 3.18.133, < 3.19>= 4.4.172, < 4.5>= 4.9.153, < 4.10>= 4.14.96, < 4.14.326>= 4.19.18, < 4.19.295>= 4.20.5, < 5.4.257>= 5.5, < 5.10.195>= 5.11, < 5.15.132>= 5.16, < 6.1.53>= 6.2, < 6.4.16>= 6.5, < 6.5.3CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 · scoped3.194.54.10
Upgrade to kernel 3.19 (for 3.18.x), 4.5 (for 4.4.x), 4.10 (for 4.9.x), or 4.14.326+ (for 4.14.x)
- Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
- Determine which version branch your kernel belongs to based on the affected ranges (3.18.x, 4.4.x, 4.9.x, or 4.14.x)
- For kernels in the 3.18.x branch (>=3.18.133): upgrade to kernel version 3.19 or later
- For kernels in the 4.4.x branch (>=4.4.172): upgrade to kernel version 4.5 or later
- For kernels in the 4.9.x branch (>=4.9.153): upgrade to kernel version 4.10 or later
- For kernels in the 4.14.x branch (>=4.14.96): upgrade to kernel version 4.14.326 or later
- Reboot the system into the upgraded kernel to apply the fix
- Alternatively, apply the specific patch commit 25fb4e3402d46f425ec135ef6f09792a4c1b3003 if rebuilding the kernel manually
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-53331 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-53331 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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