Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53169)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53169). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

x86/resctrl: Clear staged_config[] before and after it is used

As a temporary storage, staged_config[] in rdt_domain should be cleared
before and after it is used. The stale value in staged_config[] could
cause an MSR access error.

Here is a reproducer on a system with 16 usable CLOSIDs for a 15-way L3
Cache (MBA should be disabled if the number of CLOSIDs for MB is less than
16.) :
mount -t resctrl resctrl -o cdp /sys/fs/resctrl
mkdir /sys/fs/resctrl/p{1..7}
umount /sys/fs/resctrl/
mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
mkdir /sys/fs/resctrl/p{1..8}

An error occurs when creating resource group named p8:
unchecked MSR access error: WRMSR to 0xca0 (tried to write 0x00000000000007ff) at rIP: 0xffffffff82249142 (cat_wrmsr+0x32/0x60)
Call Trace:

 __flush_smp_call_function_queue+0x11d/0x170
 __sysvec_call_function+0x24/0xd0
 sysvec_call_function+0x89/0xc0
 
 
 asm_sysvec_call_function+0x16/0x20

When creating a new resource control group, hardware will be configured
by the following process:
rdtgroup_mkdir()
rdtgroup_mkdir_ctrl_mon()
rdtgroup_init_alloc()
resctrl_arch_update_domains()

resctrl_arch_update_domains() iterates and updates all resctrl_conf_type
whose have_new_ctrl is true. Since staged_config[] holds the same values as
when CDP was enabled, it will continue to update the CDP_CODE and CDP_DATA
configurations. When group p8 is…

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-2023-53169 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53169" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53169 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8 — 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 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8.

🛡️ 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 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8
```
ステージング環境で 5.15.104, 6.1.21, 6.2.8 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":"5.15.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.104"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.21"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.2.8"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53169 linux Fixed in: 6.1.25-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53169 linux-hwe-edge