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🛡️ CVE-2023-53123 — kernel

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

PCI: s390: Fix use-after-free of PCI resources with per-function hotplug

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

PCI: s390: Fix use-after-free of PCI resources with per-function hotplug

On s390 PCI functions may be hotplugged individually even when they

belong to a multi-function device. In particular on an SR-IOV device VFs

may be removed and later re-added.

In commit a50297cf8235 ("s390/pci: separate zbus creation from

scanning") it was missed however that struct pci_bus and struct

zpci_bus's resource list retained a reference to the PCI functions MMIO

resources even though those resources are released and freed on

hot-unplug. These stale resources may subsequently be claimed when the

PCI function re-appears resulting in use-after-free.

One idea of fixing this use-after-free in s390 specific code that was

investigated was to simply keep resources around from the moment a PCI

function first appeared until the whole virtual PCI bus created for

a multi-function device disappears. The problem with this however is

that due to the requirement of artificial MMIO addreesses (address

cookies) extra logic is then needed to keep the address cookies

compatible on re-plug. At the same time the MMIO resources semantically

belong to the PCI function so tying their lifecycle to the function

seems more logical.

Instead a simpler approach is to remove the resources of an individually

hot-unplugged PCI function from the PCI bus's resource list while

keeping the resources of other PCI functions on the PCI bus untouched.

This is done by introducing pci_bus_remove_resource() to remove an

individual resource. Similarly the resource also needs to be removed

from the struct zpci_bus's resource list. It turns out however, that

there is really no need to add the MMIO resources to the struct

zpci_bus's resource list at all and instead we can simply use the

zpci_bar_struct's resource pointer directly.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Local — a local account, shell or session on the host is needed.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Integrity impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Affected software

CVE-2023-53123 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.2.0 up to 6.2.8)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 2 May 2025 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

Other advisories for this package

kernel has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

CVE-2023-53123 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity High
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-05-02
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.2.0 6.2.8
linux-kernel — —

Similar Threats

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