Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53515)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53515). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev

vm_dev has a separate lifecycle because it has a 'struct device'
embedded. Thus, having a release callback for it is correct.

Allocating the vm_dev struct with devres totally breaks this protection,
though. Instead of waiting for the vm_dev release callback, the memory
is freed when the platform_device is removed. Resulting in a
use-after-free when finally the callback is to be called.

To easily see the problem, compile the kernel with
CONFIG_DEBUG_KOBJECT_RELEASE and unbind with sysfs.

The fix is easy, don't use devres in this case.

Found during my research about object lifetime problems.

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-2023-53515 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53515" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53515 (Kernel)
Patched: 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12 — 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 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12.

🛡️ 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 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12
```
ステージング環境で 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12 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":"4.15.0"},{"fixed":"4.19.293"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.255"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.192"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.128"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.47"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.12"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53515 linux Fixed in: 5.10.197-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53515 linux-azure