Linux Kernel up to 6.1.53/6.5.3 KVM memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.53/6.5.3. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component KVM. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2023-54296. There is not any exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.53/6.5.3 and classified as critical. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component KVM. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Get source vCPUs from source VM for SEV-ES intrahost migration Fix a goof where KVM tries to grab source vCPUs from the destination VM when doing intrahost migration. Grabbing the wrong vCPU not only hoses the guest, it also crashes the host due to the VMSA pointer being left NULL. BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffe38687000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 39 PID: 17143 Comm: sev_migrate_tes Tainted: GO 6.5.0-smp--fff2e47e6c3b-next #151 Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 34.28.0 07/10/2023 RIP: 0010:__free_pages+0x15/0xd0 RSP: 0018:ffff923fcf6e3c78 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffe38687000000 RCX: 0000000000000100 RDX: 0000000000000100 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffe38687000000 RBP: ffff923fcf6e3c88 R08: ffff923fcafb0000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffffffff83619b90 R12: ffff923fa9540000 R13: 0000000000080007 R14: ffff923f6d35d000 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff929d0d7c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffe38687000000 CR3: 0000005224c34005 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> sev_free_vcpu+0xcb/0x110 [kvm_amd] svm_vcpu_free+0x75/0xf0 [kvm_amd] kvm_arch_vcpu_destroy+0x36/0x140 [kvm] kvm_destroy_vcpus+0x67/0x100 [kvm] kvm_arch_destroy_vm+0x161/0x1d0 [kvm] kvm_put_kvm+0x276/0x560 [kvm] kvm_vm_release+0x25/0x30 [kvm] __fput+0x106/0x280 ____fput+0x12/0x20 task_work_run+0x86/0xb0 do_exit+0x2e3/0x9c0 do_group_exit+0xb1/0xc0 __x64_sys_exit_group+0x1b/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x41/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd </TASK> CR2: ffffe38687000000

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-54296 since 12/30/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/01/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 281523 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-54296), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.54 or 6.5.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5c18ace750e4d4d58d7da02d1c669bf21c824158/2ee4b180d51b12a45bdd3264629719ef6a572a73/f1187ef24eb8f36e8ad8106d22615ceddeea6097 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 Tenable (281523) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2941). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Open Source Linux Kernel

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
• 6.1.22
• 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
• 6.1.39
• 6.1.40
• 6.1.41
• 6.1.42
• 6.1.43
• 6.1.44
• 6.1.45
• 6.1.46
• 6.1.47
• 6.1.48
• 6.1.49
• 6.1.50
• 6.1.51
• 6.1.52
• 6.1.53
• 6.5.0
• 6.5.1
• 6.5.2
• 6.5.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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