Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53663)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53663). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.1.54, 6.5.4 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

KVM: nSVM: Check instead of asserting on nested TSC scaling support

Check for nested TSC scaling support on nested SVM VMRUN instead of
asserting that TSC scaling is exposed to L1 if L1's MSR_AMD64_TSC_RATIO
has diverged from KVM's default. Userspace can trigger the WARN at will
by writing the MSR and then updating guest CPUID to hide the feature
(modifying guest CPUID is allowed anytime before KVM_RUN). E.g. hacking
KVM's state_test selftest to do

	vcpu_set_msr(vcpu, MSR_AMD64_TSC_RATIO, 0);
	vcpu_clear_cpuid_feature(vcpu, X86_FEATURE_TSCRATEMSR);

after restoring state in a new VM+vCPU yields an endless supply of:

------------[ cut here ]------------
WARNING: CPU: 164 PID: 62565 at arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c:699
nested_vmcb02_prepare_control+0x3d6/0x3f0 [kvm_amd]
Call Trace:

enter_svm_guest_mode+0x114/0x560 [kvm_amd]
nested_svm_vmrun+0x260/0x330 [kvm_amd]
vmrun_interception+0x29/0x30 [kvm_amd]
svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x35/0x100 [kvm_amd]
svm_handle_exit+0xe7/0x180 [kvm_amd]
kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x1eab/0x2570 [kvm]
kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x4c9/0x5b0 [kvm]
__se_sys_ioctl+0x7a/0xc0
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x21/0x30
do_syscall_64+0x41/0x90
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
RIP: 0033:0x45ca1b

Note, the nested #VMEXIT path has the same flaw, but needs a different
fix and will be handled separately.

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-2023-53663 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.1.54, 6.5.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53663" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53663 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.1.54, 6.5.4 — 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 6.1.54, 6.5.4.

🛡️ 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 6.1.54, 6.5.4
```
ステージング環境で 6.1.54, 6.5.4 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":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.54"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.5.4"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53663 linux Fixed in: 6.1.55-1