CVE-2023-53989 | arm64: mm: fix VA-range sanity check

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: mm: fix VA-range sanity check Both create_mapping_noalloc() and update_mapping_prot() sanity-check their 'virt' parameter, but the check itself doesn't make much sense. The condition used today appears to be a historical accident. The sanity-check condition: if ((virt >= PAGE_END) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } ... can only be true for the KASAN shadow region or the module region, and there's no reason to exclude these specifically for creating and updateing mappings. When arm64 support was first upstreamed in commit: c1cc1552616d0f35 ("arm64: MMU initialisation") ... the condition was: if (virt < VMALLOC_START) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } At the time, VMALLOC_START was the lowest kernel address, and this was checking whether 'virt' would be translated via TTBR1. Subsequently in commit: 14c127c957c1c607 ("arm64: mm: Flip kernel VA space") ... the condition was changed to: if ((virt >= VA_START) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } This appear to have been a thinko. The commit moved the linear map to the bottom of the kernel address space, with VMALLOC_START being at the halfway point. The old condition would warn for changes to the linear map below this, and at the time VA_START was the end of the linear map. Subsequently we cleaned up the naming of VA_START in commit: 77ad4ce69321abbe ("arm64: memory: rename VA_START to PAGE_END") ... keeping the erroneous condition as: if ((virt >= PAGE_END) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } Correct the condition to check against the start of the TTBR1 address space, which is currently PAGE_OFFSET. This simplifies the logic, and more clearly matches the "outside kernel range" message in the warning.

Published: 2025-12-24 Last update: 2026-06-01 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53989 is rated Low Risk (7.1/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.17%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2023-53989

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 0.05% 0.17% +0.12%
2 2026-06-03 0.02% 0.05% +0.03%
3 2025-12-24 0.02%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53989

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53989

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-53989

GHSA-49xq-j8p7-h965 · Severity: unknown — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: mm: fix VA-range...

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53989

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-53989 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53989
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53989
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53989/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53989 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 177, released 137, not-affected 60, needed 20, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53989

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53989

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2023-53989

cvelogic Threat Intelligence