Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53998)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53998). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data

The virtio rng device kicks off a new entropy request whenever the
data available reaches zero. When a new request occurs at the end
of a read operation, that is, when the result of that request is
only needed by the next reader, then there is a race between the
writing of the new data and the next reader.

This is because there is no synchronisation whatsoever between the
writer and the reader.

Fix this by writing data_avail with smp_store_release and reading
it with smp_load_acquire when we first enter read. The subsequent
reads are safe because they're either protected by the first load
acquire, or by the completion mechanism.

Also remove the redundant zeroing of data_idx in random_recv_done
(data_idx must already be zero at this point) and data_avail in
request_entropy (ditto).

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-2023-53998 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53998" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53998 (Kernel)
Patched: 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4 — 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 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4.

🛡️ 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 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4
```
ステージング環境で 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4 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":"2.6.26"},{"fixed":"4.19.291"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"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":"6.1.39"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.3.13"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.4.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.4"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53998 linux Fixed in: 5.10.191-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53998 linux