Linux Kernel up to 6.3.4 vmemmap_populate_compound_pages denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.3.4. The affected element is the function vmemmap_populate_compound_pages. The manipulation results in denial of service. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2023-53706. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.3.4. Affected is the function vmemmap_populate_compound_pages. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmemmap/devdax: fix kernel crash when probing devdax devices commit 4917f55b4ef9 ("mm/sparse-vmemmap: improve memory savings for compound devmaps") added support for using optimized vmmemap for devdax devices. But how vmemmap mappings are created are architecture specific. For example, powerpc with hash translation doesn't have vmemmap mappings in init_mm page table instead they are bolted table entries in the hardware page table vmemmap_populate_compound_pages() used by vmemmap optimization code is not aware of these architecture-specific mapping. Hence allow architecture to opt for this feature. I selected architectures supporting HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP option as also supporting this feature. This patch fixes the below crash on ppc64. BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on write at 0xc00c000100400038 Faulting instruction address: 0xc000000001269d90 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries Modules linked in: CPU: 7 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc5-150500.34-default+ #2 5c90a668b6bbd142599890245c2fb5de19d7d28a Hardware name: IBM,9009-42G POWER9 (raw) 0x4e0202 0xf000005 of:IBM,FW950.40 (VL950_099) hv:phyp pSeries NIP: c000000001269d90 LR: c0000000004c57d4 CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c000000003632c30 TRAP: 0300 Not tainted (6.3.0-rc5-150500.34-default+) MSR: 8000000000009033 CR: 24842228 XER: 00000000 CFAR: c0000000004c57d0 DAR: c00c000100400038 DSISR: 42000000 IRQMASK: 0 .... NIP [c000000001269d90] __init_single_page.isra.74+0x14/0x4c LR [c0000000004c57d4] __init_zone_device_page+0x44/0xd0 Call Trace: [c000000003632ed0] [c000000003632f60] 0xc000000003632f60 (unreliable) [c000000003632f10] [c0000000004c5ca0] memmap_init_zone_device+0x170/0x250 [c000000003632fe0] [c0000000005575f8] memremap_pages+0x2c8/0x7f0 [c0000000036330c0] [c000000000557b5c] devm_memremap_pages+0x3c/0xa0 [c000000003633100] [c000000000d458a8] dev_dax_probe+0x108/0x3e0 [c0000000036331a0] [c000000000d41430] dax_bus_probe+0xb0/0x140 [c0000000036331d0] [c000000000cef27c] really_probe+0x19c/0x520 [c000000003633260] [c000000000cef6b4] __driver_probe_device+0xb4/0x230 [c0000000036332e0] [c000000000cef888] driver_probe_device+0x58/0x120 [c000000003633320] [c000000000cefa6c] __device_attach_driver+0x11c/0x1e0 [c0000000036333a0] [c000000000cebc58] bus_for_each_drv+0xa8/0x130 [c000000003633400] [c000000000ceefcc] __device_attach+0x15c/0x250 [c0000000036334a0] [c000000000ced458] bus_probe_device+0x108/0x110 [c0000000036334f0] [c000000000ce92dc] device_add+0x7fc/0xa10 [c0000000036335b0] [c000000000d447c8] devm_create_dev_dax+0x1d8/0x530 [c000000003633640] [c000000000d46b60] __dax_pmem_probe+0x200/0x270 [c0000000036337b0] [c000000000d46bf0] dax_pmem_probe+0x20/0x70 [c0000000036337d0] [c000000000d2279c] nvdimm_bus_probe+0xac/0x2b0 [c000000003633860] [c000000000cef27c] really_probe+0x19c/0x520 [c0000000036338f0] [c000000000cef6b4] __driver_probe_device+0xb4/0x230 [c000000003633970] [c000000000cef888] driver_probe_device+0x58/0x120 [c0000000036339b0] [c000000000cefd08] __driver_attach+0x1d8/0x240 [c000000003633a30] [c000000000cebb04] bus_for_each_dev+0xb4/0x130 [c000000003633a90] [c000000000cee564] driver_attach+0x34/0x50 [c000000003633ab0] [c000000000ced878] bus_add_driver+0x218/0x300 [c000000003633b40] [c000000000cf1144] driver_register+0xa4/0x1b0 [c000000003633bb0] [c000000000d21a0c] __nd_driver_register+0x5c/0x100 [c000000003633c10] [c00000000206a2e8] dax_pmem_init+0x34/0x48 [c000000003633c30] [c0000000000132d0] do_one_initcall+0x60/0x320 [c000000003633d00] [c0000000020051b0] kernel_init_freeable+0x360/0x400 [c000000003633de0] [c000000000013764] kernel_init+0x34/0x1d0 [c000000003633e50] [c00000000000de14] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53706 since 10/22/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.3.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 8f4603588acf5807aa1f1b4b1ea2b0365acd71f0/87a7ae75d7383afa998f57656d1d14e2a730cc47 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). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

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

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1
• 6.3.2
• 6.3.3
• 6.3.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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