Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54081)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54081). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.1.43, 6.4.8 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

xen: speed up grant-table reclaim

When a grant entry is still in use by the remote domain, Linux must put
it on a deferred list. Normally, this list is very short, because
the PV network and block protocols expect the backend to unmap the grant
first. However, Qubes OS's GUI protocol is subject to the constraints
of the X Window System, and as such winds up with the frontend unmapping
the window first. As a result, the list can grow very large, resulting
in a massive memory leak and eventual VM freeze.

To partially solve this problem, make the number of entries that the VM
will attempt to free at each iteration tunable. The default is still
10, but it can be overridden via a module parameter.

This is Cc: stable because (when combined with appropriate userspace
changes) it fixes a severe performance and stability problem for Qubes
OS users.

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-2023-54081 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.1.43, 6.4.8 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-54081" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-54081 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.1.43, 6.4.8 — 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 6.1.43, 6.4.8.

🛡️ 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 6.1.43, 6.4.8
```
ステージング環境で 6.1.43, 6.4.8 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":"3.5.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.43"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.8"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54081 linux
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54081 linux