Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-53587
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: ring-buffer: Sync IRQ works before buffer destruction If something was written to the buffer just before destruction, it may be possible (maybe not in a real system, but it did happen in ARCH=um with time-travel) to destroy the ringbuffer before the IRQ work ran, leading this KASAN report (or a crash without KASAN): BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in irq_work_run_list+0x11a/0x13a Read of size 8 at addr 000000006d640a48 by task swapper/0 CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Tainted: G W O 6.3.0-rc1 #7 Stack: 60c4f20f 0c203d48 41b58ab3 60f224fc 600477fa 60f35687 60c4f20f 601273dd 00000008 6101eb00 6101eab0 615be548 Call Trace: [<60047a58>] show_stack+0x25e/0x282 [<60c609e0>] dump_stack_lvl+0x96/0xfd [<60c50d4c>] print_report+0x1a7/0x5a8 [<603078d3>] kasan_report+0xc1/0xe9 [<60308950>] __asan_report_load8_noabort+0x1b/0x1d [<60232844>] irq_work_run_list+0x11a/0x13a [<602328b4>] irq_work_tick+0x24/0x34 [<6017f9dc>] update_process_times+0x162/0x196 [<6019f335>] tick_sched_handle+0x1a4/0x1c3 [<6019fd9e>] tick_sched_timer+0x79/0x10c [<601812b9>] __hrtimer_run_queues.constprop.0+0x425/0x695 [<60182913>] hrtimer_interrupt+0x16c/0x2c4 [<600486a3>] um_timer+0x164/0x183 [...] Allocated by task 411: save_stack_trace+0x99/0xb5 stack_trace_save+0x81/0x9b kasan_save_stack+0x2d/0x54 kasan_set_track+0x34/0x3e kasan_save_alloc_info+0x25/0x28 ____kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0x97 __kasan_kmalloc+0x10/0x12 __kmalloc+0xb2/0xe8 load_elf_phdrs+0xee/0x182 [...] The buggy address belongs to the object at 000000006d640800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 584 bytes inside of freed 1024-byte region [000000006d640800, 000000006d640c00) Add the appropriate irq_work_sync() so the work finishes before the buffers are destroyed. Prior to the commit in the Fixes tag below, there was only a single global IRQ work, so this issue didn't exist.
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 analysisMemory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.
General guidance for the use after free 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
>= 3.10, < 4.14.315>= 4.15, < 4.19.283>= 4.20, < 5.4.243>= 5.5, < 5.10.180>= 5.11, < 5.15.111>= 5.16, < 6.1.28>= 6.2, < 6.2.15>= 6.3, < 6.3.2CVSS 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 · scoped4.14.3154.19.2835.4.243
4.14.315+ / 4.19.283+ / 5.4.243+ / 5.10.180+ (depending on branch)
- Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
- For kernels in the 4.14.x branch, upgrade to version 4.14.315 or later
- For kernels in the 4.19.x branch, upgrade to version 4.19.283 or later
- For kernels in the 5.4.x branch, upgrade to version 5.4.243 or later
- For kernels in the 5.10.x branch, upgrade to version 5.10.180 or later
- For kernels 5.11 and later, consult vendor security advisories for the appropriate patched kernel version
- After upgrading, verify the fix commit 0a65165bd24ee9231191597b7c232376fcd70cdb is included in the new kernel by checking the changelog or kernel config
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-2023-53587 — 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-2023-53587 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
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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