CVE-2023-53328 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Enhance sanity check while generating attr_list ni_create_attr_list uses WARN_ON to catch error cases while generating attribute list, which only prints out stack trace and may not be enough. This repalces them with more proper error handling flow. [ 59.666332] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000000e [ 59.673268] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 59.678354] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 59.682831] PGD 8000000005ff1067 P4D 8000000005ff1067 PUD 7dee067 PMD 0 [ 59.688556] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI [ 59.692642] CPU: 0 PID: 198 Comm: poc Tainted: G B W 6.2.0-rc1+ #4 [ 59.698868] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 59.708795] RIP: 0010:ni_create_attr_list+0x505/0x860 [ 59.713657] Code: 7e 10 e8 5e d0 d0 ff 45 0f b7 76 10 48 8d 7b 16 e8 00 d1 d0 ff 66 44 89 73 16 4d 8d 75 0e 4c 89 f7 e8 3f d0 d0 ff 4c 8d8 [ 59.731559] RSP: 0018:ffff88800a56f1e0 EFLAGS: 00010282 [ 59.735691] RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffff88800b7b5088 RCX: ffffffffb83079fe [ 59.741792] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffffffffbb7f9fc0 [ 59.748423] RBP: ffff88800a56f3a8 R08: ffff88800b7b50a0 R09: fffffbfff76ff3f9 [ 59.754654] R10: ffffffffbb7f9fc7 R11: fffffbfff76ff3f8 R12: ffff88800b756180 [ 59.761552] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000000000000000e R15: 0000000000000050 [ 59.768323] FS: 00007feaa8c96440(0000) GS:ffff88806d400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 59.776027] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 59.781395] CR2: 00007f3a2e0b1000 CR3: 000000000a5bc000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 [ 59.787607] Call Trace: [ 59.790271] <TASK> [ 59.792488] ? __pfx_ni_create_attr_list+0x10/0x10 [ 59.797235] ? kernel_text_address+0xd3/0xe0 [ 59.800856] ? unwind_get_return_address+0x3e/0x60 [ 59.805101] ? __kasan_check_write+0x18/0x20 [ 59.809296] ? preempt_count_sub+0x1c/0xd0 [ 59.813421] ni_ins_attr_ext+0x52c/0x5c0 [ 59.817034] ? __pfx_ni_ins_attr_ext+0x10/0x10 [ 59.821926] ? __vfs_setxattr+0x121/0x170 [ 59.825718] ? __vfs_setxattr_noperm+0x97/0x300 [ 59.829562] ? __vfs_setxattr_locked+0x145/0x170 [ 59.833987] ? vfs_setxattr+0x137/0x2a0 [ 59.836732] ? do_setxattr+0xce/0x150 [ 59.839807] ? setxattr+0x126/0x140 [ 59.842353] ? path_setxattr+0x164/0x180 [ 59.845275] ? __x64_sys_setxattr+0x71/0x90 [ 59.848838] ? do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [ 59.851898] ? entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [ 59.857046] ? stack_depot_save+0x17/0x20 [ 59.860299] ni_insert_attr+0x1ba/0x420 [ 59.863104] ? __pfx_ni_insert_attr+0x10/0x10 [ 59.867069] ? preempt_count_sub+0x1c/0xd0 [ 59.869897] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x2b/0x50 [ 59.874088] ? __create_object+0x3ae/0x5d0 [ 59.877865] ni_insert_resident+0xc4/0x1c0 [ 59.881430] ? __pfx_ni_insert_resident+0x10/0x10 [ 59.886355] ? kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1f/0x30 [ 59.891117] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0xa0 [ 59.894383] ntfs_set_ea+0x90d/0xbf0 [ 59.897703] ? __pfx_ntfs_set_ea+0x10/0x10 [ 59.901011] ? kernel_text_address+0xd3/0xe0 [ 59.905308] ? __kernel_text_address+0x16/0x50 [ 59.909811] ? unwind_get_return_address+0x3e/0x60 [ 59.914898] ? __pfx_stack_trace_consume_entry+0x10/0x10 [ 59.920250] ? arch_stack_walk+0xa2/0x100 [ 59.924560] ? filter_irq_stacks+0x27/0x80 [ 59.928722] ntfs_setxattr+0x405/0x440 [ 59.932512] ? __pfx_ntfs_setxattr+0x10/0x10 [ 59.936634] ? kvmalloc_node+0x2d/0x120 [ 59.940378] ? kasan_save_stack+0x41/0x60 [ 59.943870] ? kasan_save_stack+0x2a/0x60 [ 59.947719] ? kasan_set_track+0x29/0x40 [ 59.951417] ? kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1f/0x30 [ 59.955733] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0xa0 [ 59.959598] ? __kmalloc_node+0x68/0x150 [ 59.963163] ? kvmalloc_node+0x2d/0x120 [ 59.966490] ? vmemdup_user+0x2b/0xa0 ---truncated---

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-09-17	—	0.03%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-09-17

—

0.03%

—

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-2023-53328

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2023-53328 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-2023-53328
`redhat`	—	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53328
`suse`	medium	CVE-2023-53328 severity moderate: SUSE including 402 source package names (2.1.3-6.80:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-35.1.21.12, 2.1.3-7.57:kernel-default-6.4.0-35.1, …), 868 product×package rows across 182 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (182 product lines)): Fixed 442, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 195.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53328/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-53328 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, ignored 162, released 116, not-affected 76, needed 42, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53328

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53328

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.15, < 5.15.128	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.16, < 6.1.47	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.2, < 6.4.12	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::

References for CVE-2023-53328

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4246bbef0442f4a1e974df0ab091f4f33ac69451	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64fab8bce5237ca225ee1ec9dff5cc8c31b0631f	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7799bb4dbe26bfb665f29ea87981708fd6012d8	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fdec309c7672cbee4dc0229ee4cbb33c948a1bdd	Patch

URL

CVE-2023-53328 | fs/ntfs3: Enhance sanity check while generating attr_list

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53328

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53328

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53328

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53328

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53328

References for CVE-2023-53328