Linux Kernel up to 6.2.9 vfio_ap null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.239/5.10.176/5.15.105/6.1.22/6.2.9. This impacts the function vfio_ap. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53746. 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 5.4.239/5.10.176/5.15.105/6.1.22/6.2.9. This affects the function vfio_ap. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: s390/vfio-ap: fix memory leak in vfio_ap device driver The device release callback function invoked to release the matrix device uses the dev_get_drvdata(device *dev) function to retrieve the pointer to the vfio_matrix_dev object in order to free its storage. The problem is, this object is not stored as drvdata with the device; since the kfree function will accept a NULL pointer, the memory for the vfio_matrix_dev object is never freed. Since the device being released is contained within the vfio_matrix_dev object, the container_of macro will be used to retrieve its pointer.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-53746 since 12/08/2025. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 5.4.240, 5.10.177, 5.15.106, 6.1.23 or 6.2.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5195de1d5f66b276683240a896783f7f43c4f664/ee17dea3072dec0bc34399a32fa884e26342e4ea/aa2bff25e9bb10c935c7ffe3d5f5975bdccb1749/6a40fda14b4be3e38f03cc42ffd4efbc64fb3e67/7b6a02f5bf15931464c79dfd487c57f76aae3496/8f8cf767589f2131ae5d40f3758429095c701c84 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 databases at EUVD (EUVD-2023-60082) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2756). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• NetApp FAS
• NetApp AFF
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Microsoft Azure Linux

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.4.239
• 5.10.176
• 5.15.105
• 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
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7
• 6.2.8
• 6.2.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

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