Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54241)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54241). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

MIPS: KVM: Fix NULL pointer dereference

After commit 45c7e8af4a5e3f0bea4ac209 ("MIPS: Remove KVM_TE support") we
get a NULL pointer dereference when creating a KVM guest:

[ 146.243409] Starting KVM with MIPS VZ extensions
[ 149.849151] CPU 3 Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 0000000000000300, epc == ffffffffc06356ec, ra == ffffffffc063568c
[ 149.849177] Oops[#1]:
[ 149.849182] CPU: 3 PID: 2265 Comm: qemu-system-mip Not tainted 6.4.0-rc3+ #1671
[ 149.849188] Hardware name: THTF CX TL630 Series/THTF-LS3A4000-7A1000-ML4A, BIOS KL4.1F.TF.D.166.201225.R 12/25/2020
[ 149.849192] $ 0 : 0000000000000000 000000007400cce0 0000000000400004 ffffffff8119c740
[ 149.849209] $ 4 : 000000007400cce1 000000007400cce1 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[ 149.849221] $ 8 : 000000240058bb36 ffffffff81421ac0 0000000000000000 0000000000400dc0
[ 149.849233] $12 : 9800000102a07cc8 ffffffff80e40e38 0000000000000001 0000000000400dc0
[ 149.849245] $16 : 0000000000000000 9800000106cd0000 9800000106cd0000 9800000100cce000
[ 149.849257] $20 : ffffffffc0632b28 ffffffffc05b31b0 9800000100ccca00 0000000000400000
[ 149.849269] $24 : 9800000106cd09ce ffffffff802f69d0
[ 149.849281] $28 : 9800000102a04000 9800000102a07cd0 98000001106a8000 ffffffffc063568c
[ 149.849293] Hi : 00000335b2111e66
[ 149.849295] Lo : 6668d90061ae0ae9
[ 149.849298] epc : ffffffffc06356ec kvm_vz_vcpu_setup+0x…

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-2023-54241 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-54241" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-54241 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 — 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 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5.

🛡️ 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 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5
```
ステージング環境で 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5 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":"5.13.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.121"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.40"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.5"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54241 linux Fixed in: 6.1.52-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54241 linux-hwe-edge