Linux Kernel up to 6.1.21/6.2.8 scsi memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.21/6.2.8. This affects an unknown function of the component scsi. Performing a manipulation results in memory corruption. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2023-53037. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.21/6.2.8. This affects an unknown code of the component scsi. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: mpi3mr: Bad drive in topology results kernel crash When the SAS Transport Layer support is enabled and a device exposed to the OS by the driver fails INQUIRY commands, the driver frees up the memory allocated for an internal HBA port data structure. However, in some places, the reference to the freed memory is not cleared. When the firmware sends the Device Info change event for the same device again, the freed memory is accessed and that leads to memory corruption and OS crash.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-53037 since 03/27/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 11/12/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 246947 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53037), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.22 or 6.2.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 1f822ae8fb2a20fffa71e9bfa9b203c03d72d3ba/aa11e4b6cdb403b9fdef6939550f6b36dd61624d/8e45183978d64699df639e795235433a60f35047 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (246947). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7
• 6.2.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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