CVE-2023-53236 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommufd: Do not corrupt the pfn list when doing batch carry If batch->end is 0 then setting npfns[0] before computing the new value of pfns will fail to adjust the pfn and result in various page accounting corruptions. It should be ordered after. This seems to result in various kinds of page meta-data corruption related failures: WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 527 at mm/gup.c:75 try_grab_folio+0x503/0x740 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 PID: 527 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.3.0-rc2-eeac8ede1755+ #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:try_grab_folio+0x503/0x740 Code: e3 01 48 89 de e8 6d c1 dd ff 48 85 db 0f 84 7c fe ff ff e8 4f bf dd ff 49 8d 47 ff 48 89 45 d0 e9 73 fe ff ff e8 3d bf dd ff <0f> 0b 31 db e9 d0 fc ff ff e8 2f bf dd ff 48 8b 5d c8 31 ff 48 89 RSP: 0018:ffffc90000f37908 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000fffffc02 RCX: ffffffff81504c26 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff88800d030000 RDI: 0000000000000002 RBP: ffffc90000f37948 R08: 000000000003ca24 R09: 0000000000000008 R10: 000000000003ca00 R11: 0000000000000023 R12: ffffea000035d540 R13: 0000000000000001 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffea000035d540 FS: 00007fecbf659740(0000) GS:ffff88807dd00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00000000200011c3 CR3: 000000000ef66006 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> internal_get_user_pages_fast+0xd32/0x2200 pin_user_pages_fast+0x65/0x90 pfn_reader_user_pin+0x376/0x390 pfn_reader_next+0x14a/0x7b0 pfn_reader_first+0x140/0x1b0 iopt_area_fill_domain+0x74/0x210 iopt_table_add_domain+0x30e/0x6e0 iommufd_device_selftest_attach+0x7f/0x140 iommufd_test+0x10ff/0x16f0 iommufd_fops_ioctl+0x206/0x330 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x10e/0x160 do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-09-16	—	0.02%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-09-16

—

0.02%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	3.6	134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

3.6

134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53236

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2023-53236 unimportant 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-2023-53236
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53236
`suse`	medium	CVE-2023-53236 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 276 product×package rows across 54 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (54 product lines)): Known Not Affected 276.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53236/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-53236 medium priority: Ubuntu including 150 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1350 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 969, ignored 159, not-affected 142, released 80.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53236

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53236

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.2, < 6.2.11	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc1::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc2::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc3::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc4::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc5::::::

References for CVE-2023-53236

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/13a0d1ae7ee6b438f5537711a8c60cba00554943	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ed5784526ddc0fb58b1798af36ec0c3139a8dca	Patch

URL

CVE-2023-53236 | iommufd: Do not corrupt the pfn list when doing batch carry

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53236

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53236

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53236

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53236

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53236

References for CVE-2023-53236