Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53167)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53167). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Fix null pointer dereference in tracing_err_log_open()

Fix an issue in function 'tracing_err_log_open'.
The function doesn't call 'seq_open' if the file is opened only with
write permissions, which results in 'file->private_data' being left as null.
If we then use 'lseek' on that opened file, 'seq_lseek' dereferences
'file->private_data' in 'mutex_lock(&m->lock)', resulting in a kernel panic.
Writing to this node requires root privileges, therefore this bug
has very little security impact.

Tracefs node: /sys/kernel/tracing/error_log

Example Kernel panic:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000038
Call trace:
mutex_lock+0x30/0x110
seq_lseek+0x34/0xb8
__arm64_sys_lseek+0x6c/0xb8
invoke_syscall+0x58/0x13c
el0_svc_common+0xc4/0x10c
do_el0_svc+0x24/0x98
el0_svc+0x24/0x88
el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xe4
el0t_64_sync+0x1b4/0x1b8
Code: d503201f aa0803e0 aa1f03e1 aa0103e9 (c8e97d02)
---[ end trace 561d1b49c12cf8a5 ]---
Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops: Fatal exception

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-53167 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53167" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53167 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5
```
ステージング環境で 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.2.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.251"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.188"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.121"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.40"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.5"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53167 linux Fixed in: 5.10.191-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53167 linux