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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2023-53515 json

virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev

published 2025-10-01 13 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2025-32745

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev

vm_dev has a separate lifecycle because it has a 'struct device' embedded. Thus, having a release callback for it is correct.

Allocating the vm_dev struct with devres totally breaks this protection, though. Instead of waiting for the vm_dev release callback, the memory is freed when the platform_device is removed. Resulting in a use-after-free when finally the callback is to be called.

To easily see the problem, compile the kernel with CONFIG_DEBUG_KOBJECT_RELEASE and unbind with sysfs.

The fix is easy, don't use devres in this case.

Found during my research about object lifetime problems.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.19.293, 5.4.255, 5.10.192, 5.15.128, 6.1.47, 6.4.12, 6.5
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.52-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.4.13-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53515

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-169.187
  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-91.101
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1116.126
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1051.56
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1120.129
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1048.56
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1048.53
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1063.68

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53515

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1SUSE-SU-2025:4132-1SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1SUSE-SU-2025:3761-1SUSE-SU-2025:20898-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-53515 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.