Linux Kernel up to 6.4.9 s390 denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.4.9. The affected element is an unknown function of the component s390. Executing a manipulation can lead to denial of service. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-54278. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.4.9. This vulnerability affects an unknown functionality of the component s390. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: s390/vmem: split pages when debug pagealloc is enabled Since commit bb1520d581a3 ("s390/mm: start kernel with DAT enabled") the kernel crashes early during boot when debug pagealloc is enabled: mem auto-init: stack:off, heap alloc:off, heap free:off addressing exception: 0005 ilc:2 [#1] SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 6.5.0-rc3-09759-gc5666c912155 #630 [..] Krnl Code: 00000000001325f6: ec5600248064 cgrj %r5,%r6,8,000000000013263e 00000000001325fc: eb880002000c srlg %r8,%r8,2 #0000000000132602: b2210051 ipte %r5,%r1,%r0,0 >0000000000132606: b90400d1 lgr %r13,%r1 000000000013260a: 41605008 la %r6,8(%r5) 000000000013260e: a7db1000 aghi %r13,4096 0000000000132612: b221006d ipte %r6,%r13,%r0,0 0000000000132616: e3d0d0000171 lay %r13,4096(%r13) Call Trace: __kernel_map_pages+0x14e/0x320 __free_pages_ok+0x23a/0x5a8) free_low_memory_core_early+0x214/0x2c8 memblock_free_all+0x28/0x58 mem_init+0xb6/0x228 mm_core_init+0xb6/0x3b0 start_kernel+0x1d2/0x5a8 startup_continue+0x36/0x40 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception: panic_on_oops This is caused by using large mappings on machines with EDAT1/EDAT2. Add the code to split the mappings into 4k pages if debug pagealloc is enabled by CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC_ENABLE_DEFAULT or the debug_pagealloc kernel command line option.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2023-54278 since 12/30/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 281494 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-54278), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.4.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 601e467e29a960f7ab7ec4075afc6a68c3532a65/edc1e4b6e26536868ef819a735e04a5b32c10589 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 (281494) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2941). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• IBM Power Hardware Management Console
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• IBM DataPower Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.4.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.4.2
• 6.4.3
• 6.4.4
• 6.4.5
• 6.4.6
• 6.4.7
• 6.4.8
• 6.4.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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