Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-6238
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 · uneditedA buffer overflow vulnerability was found in the NVM Express (NVMe) driver in the Linux kernel. Only privileged user could specify a small meta buffer and let the device perform larger Direct Memory Access (DMA) into the same buffer, overwriting unrelated kernel memory, causing random kernel crashes and memory corruption.
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 · high confidenceA buffer overflow exists in the Linux kernel's NVMe driver where a privileged user can specify a small meta buffer, and the device then performs a larger Direct Memory Access (DMA) operation into that same buffer. This mismatched size allows DMA writes to overflow the buffer boundaries, corrupting adjacent kernel memory and causing kernel crashes.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
all versions
FedoraOperating system
= 38CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the kernel versionRun 'uname -r' or check /proc/version to retrieve the running Linux kernel versionAffected if The kernel version is any Linux kernel version (all versions are affected per the CVE description)
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Check if NVMe support is presentRun 'lsmod | grep nvme' to see if the nvme kernel module is loaded, or check /sys/kernel/config/nvmet for NVMe over Fabrics target configAffected if The NVMe driver/module is loaded or available on the system
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Identify if privileged users can access NVMe devicesCheck /dev/nvme* device permissions with 'ls -la /dev/nvme*' and review sudo/user privileges for NVMe-related commands like nvme-cliAffected if Any non-root user or unprivileged process has access to NVMe device nodes or can execute NVMe admin commands
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Check the operating system versionRun 'cat /etc/fedora-release' or 'cat /etc/os-release' to identify the distribution and versionAffected if The system is running Fedora version 38 (specifically affected per the CVE)
The environment is affected if it runs any Linux kernel version with the NVMe driver loaded and has privileged users or processes that can interact with NVMe devices, especially on Fedora 38.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataApply the Linux kernel security patch for CVE-2023-6238 to the affected systems. As a compensating control, limit the number of privileged users who can interact with NVMe devices until the patch is applied.
Fix this in Linux Kernel
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,128.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-6238 — 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-2023-6238 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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