Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54278)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-54278). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.4.10 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

s390/vmem: split pages when debug pagealloc is enabled

Since commit bb1520d581a3 ("s390/mm: start kernel with DAT enabled")
the kernel crashes early during boot when debug pagealloc is enabled:

mem auto-init: stack:off, heap alloc:off, heap free:off
addressing exception: 0005 ilc:2 [#1] SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 6.5.0-rc3-09759-gc5666c912155 #630
[..]
Krnl Code: 00000000001325f6: ec5600248064 cgrj %r5,%r6,8,000000000013263e
00000000001325fc: eb880002000c srlg %r8,%r8,2
#0000000000132602: b2210051 ipte %r5,%r1,%r0,0
>0000000000132606: b90400d1 lgr %r13,%r1
000000000013260a: 41605008 la %r6,8(%r5)
000000000013260e: a7db1000 aghi %r13,4096
0000000000132612: b221006d ipte %r6,%r13,%r0,0
0000000000132616: e3d0d0000171 lay %r13,4096(%r13)

Call Trace:
__kernel_map_pages+0x14e/0x320
__free_pages_ok+0x23a/0x5a8)
free_low_memory_core_early+0x214/0x2c8
memblock_free_all+0x28/0x58
mem_init+0xb6/0x228
mm_core_init+0xb6/0x3b0
start_kernel+0x1d2/0x5a8
startup_continue+0x36/0x40
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception: panic_on_oops

This is caused by using large mappings on machines with EDAT1/EDAT2. Add
the code to split the mappings into 4k pages if debug pagealloc is enabled
by CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC_ENABLE_DEFAULT or the debug_pagealloc kernel
command line op…

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-2023-54278 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.4.10 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-54278" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-54278 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.4.10 — 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 6.4.10.

🛡️ 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 6.4.10
```
ステージング環境で 6.4.10 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":"6.3.0"},{"fixed":"6.4.10"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54278 linux Fixed in: 6.4.11-1