Linux Kernel up to 5.15.120/6.1.38/6.4.3 memblock_allow_resize memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.120/6.1.38/6.4.3 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function memblock_allow_resize. The manipulation results in memory corruption. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53699. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.120/6.1.38/6.4.3. Affected is the function memblock_allow_resize. 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. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: move memblock_allow_resize() after linear mapping is ready The initial memblock metadata is accessed from kernel image mapping. The regions arrays need to "reallocated" from memblock and accessed through linear mapping to cover more memblock regions. So the resizing should not be allowed until linear mapping is ready. Note that there are memblock allocations when building linear mapping. This patch is similar to 24cc61d8cb5a ("arm64: memblock: don't permit memblock resizing until linear mapping is up"). In following log, many memblock regions are reserved before create_linear_mapping_page_table(). And then it triggered reallocation of memblock.reserved.regions and memcpy the old array in kernel image mapping to the new array in linear mapping which caused a page fault. [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf01f000-0x00000000bf01ffff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf021000-0x00000000bf021fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf023000-0x00000000bf023fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf025000-0x00000000bf025fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf027000-0x00000000bf027fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf029000-0x00000000bf029fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf02b000-0x00000000bf02bfff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf02d000-0x00000000bf02dfff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf02f000-0x00000000bf02ffff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf030000-0x00000000bf030fff] early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem+0x28c/0x2c6 [ 0.000000] OF: reserved mem: 0x0000000080000000..0x000000008007ffff (512 KiB) map non-reusable mmode_resv0@80000000 [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x00000000bf000000-0x00000000bf001fed] paging_init+0x19a/0x5ae [ 0.000000] memblock_phys_alloc_range: 4096 bytes align=0x1000 from=0x0000000000000000 max_addr=0x0000000000000000 alloc_pmd_fixmap+0x14/0x1c [ 0.000000] memblock_reserve: [0x000000017ffff000-0x000000017fffffff] memblock_alloc_range_nid+0xb8/0x128 [ 0.000000] memblock: reserved is doubled to 256 at [0x000000017fffd000-0x000000017fffe7ff] [ 0.000000] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ff600000ffffd000 [ 0.000000] Oops [#1] [ 0.000000] Modules linked in: [ 0.000000] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 6.4.0-rc1-00011-g99a670b2069c #66 [ 0.000000] Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT) [ 0.000000] epc : __memcpy+0x60/0xf8 [ 0.000000] ra : memblock_double_array+0x192/0x248 [ 0.000000] epc : ffffffff8081d214 ra : ffffffff80a3dfc0 sp : ffffffff81403bd0 [ 0.000000] gp : ffffffff814fbb38 tp : ffffffff8140dac0 t0 : 0000000001600000 [ 0.000000] t1 : 0000000000000000 t2 : 000000008f001000 s0 : ffffffff81403c60 [ 0.000000] s1 : ffffffff80c0bc98 a0 : ff600000ffffd000 a1 : ffffffff80c0bcd8 [ 0.000000] a2 : 0000000000000c00 a3 : ffffffff80c0c8d8 a4 : 0000000080000000 [ 0.000000] a5 : 0000000000080000 a6 : 0000000000000000 a7 : 0000000080200000 [ 0.000000] s2 : ff600000ffffd000 s3 : 0000000000002000 s4 : 0000000000000c00 [ 0.000000] s5 : ffffffff80c0bc60 s6 : ffffffff80c0bcc8 s7 : 0000000000000000 [ 0.000000] s8 : ffffffff814fd0a8 s9 : 000000017fffe7ff s10: 0000000000000000 [ 0.000000] s11: 0000000000001000 t3 : 0000000000001000 t4 : 0000000000000000 [ 0.000000] t5 : 000000008f003000 t6 : ff600000ffffd000 [ 0.000000] status: 0000000200000100 badaddr: ff600000ffffd000 cause: 000000000000000f [ 0.000000] [<fff ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53699 since 10/22/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 02/28/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.15.121, 6.1.39 or 6.4.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a4284246fca2ef482a8fcf5ad7d2c33a45b41e9c/0a1b80ff4f721c4be98707bfe9d20238df133eb8/ba11f4e59509538810e5c44578fc73984acdf1d7/85fadc0d04119c2fe4a20287767ab904c6d21ba1 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 CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2394). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.120
• 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
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.1.31
• 6.1.32
• 6.1.33
• 6.1.34
• 6.1.35
• 6.1.36
• 6.1.37
• 6.1.38
• 6.4.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.4.2
• 6.4.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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