CVE-2023-2163 | Incorrect Verifier Branch Pruning Logic Leads To Arbitrary Read/Write In Linux Kernel and Lateral Privilege Escalation

Incorrect verifier pruning in BPF in Linux Kernel >=5.4 leads to unsafe code paths being incorrectly marked as safe, resulting in arbitrary read/write in kernel memory, lateral privilege escalation, and container escape.

Published: 2023-09-20 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-2163 is rated High Risk (74.1/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.55%). EPSS rose +3.37% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-2163

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.17% 3.55% +3.37%
2 2025-11-21 0.97% 0.17% -0.80%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.97% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-2163

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
10.0 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 5.8 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.0 6.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-2163

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-2163

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-2163 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-2163
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-2163
suse high — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-2163/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-2163 medium priority: Ubuntu including 167 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner, …), 1970 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1512, released 209, not-affected 144, ignored 105. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-2163

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-2163

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.3, < 5.4.242 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.179 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.109 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.26 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.2.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-2163

cvelogic Threat Intelligence