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TI-2023-29993 Aliases CVE-2023-53706GHSA-6xfg-j7h4-rj4m

mm/vmemmap/devdax: fix kernel crash when probing devdax devices

Priority LOW 22Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
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Privileges required
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User interaction
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Attack complexity
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Impact type
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Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix

No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmemmap/devdax: fix kernel crash when probing devdax devices commit 4917f55b4ef9 ("mm/sparse-vmemmap: improve memory savings for compound devmaps") added support for using optimized vmmemap for devdax devices. But how vmemmap mappings are created are architecture specific. For example, powerpc with hash translation doesn't have vmemmap mappings in init_mm page table instead they are bolted table entries in the hardware page table vmemmap_populate_compound_pages() used by vmemmap optimization code is not aware of these architecture-specific mapping. Hence allow architecture to opt for this feature. I selected architectures supporting HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP option as also supporting this feature. This patch fixes the below crash on ppc64. BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on write at 0xc00c000100400038 Faulting instruction address: 0xc000000001269d90 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Hash SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries Modules linked in: CPU: 7 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc5-150500.34-default+ #2 5c90a668b6bbd142599890245c2fb5de19d7d28a Hardware name: IBM,9009-42G POWER9 (raw) 0x4e0202 0xf000005 of:IBM,FW950.40 (VL950_099) hv:phyp pSeries NIP: c000000001269d90 LR: c0000000004c57d4 CTR: 0000000000000000 REGS: c000000003632c30 TRAP: 0300 Not tainted (6.3.0-rc5-150500.34-default+) MSR: 8000000000009033 <SF,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 24842228 XER: 00000000 CFAR: c0000000004c57d0 DAR: c00c000100400038 DSISR: 42000000 IRQMASK: 0 .... NIP [c000000001269d90] __init_single_page.isra.74+0x14/0x4c LR [c0000000004c57d4] __init_zone_device_page+0x44/0xd0 Call Trace: [c000000003632ed0] [c000000003632f60] 0xc000000003632f60 (unreliable) [c000000003632f10] [c0000000004c5ca0] memmap_init_zone_device+0x170/0x250 [c000000003632fe0] [c0000000005575f8] memremap_pages+0x2c8/0x7f0 [c0000000036330c0] [c000000000557b5c] devm_memremap_pages+0x3c/0xa0 [c000000003633100] [c000000000d458a8] dev_dax_probe+0x108/0x3e0 [c0000000036331a0] [c000000000d41430] dax_bus_probe+0xb0/0x140 [c0000000036331d0] [c000000000cef27c] really_probe+0x19c/0x520 [c000000003633260] [c000000000cef6b4] __driver_probe_device+0xb4/0x230 [c0000000036332e0] [c000000000cef888] driver_probe_device+0x58/0x120 [c000000003633320] [c000000000cefa6c] __device_attach_driver+0x11c/0x1e0 [c0000000036333a0] [c000000000cebc58] bus_for_each_drv+0xa8/0x130 [c000000003633400] [c000000000ceefcc] __device_attach+0x15c/0x250 [c0000000036334a0] [c000000000ced458] bus_probe_device+0x108/0x110 [c0000000036334f0] [c000000000ce92dc] device_add+0x7fc/0xa10 [c0000000036335b0] [c000000000d447c8] devm_create_dev_dax+0x1d8/0x530 [c000000003633640] [c000000000d46b60] __dax_pmem_probe+0x200/0x270 [c0000000036337b0] [c000000000d46bf0] dax_pmem_probe+0x20/0x70 [c0000000036337d0] [c000000000d2279c] nvdimm_bus_probe+0xac/0x2b0 [c000000003633860] [c000000000cef27c] really_probe+0x19c/0x520 [c0000000036338f0] [c000000000cef6b4] __driver_probe_device+0xb4/0x230 [c000000003633970] [c000000000cef888] driver_probe_device+0x58/0x120 [c0000000036339b0] [c000000000cefd08] __driver_attach+0x1d8/0x240 [c000000003633a30] [c000000000cebb04] bus_for_each_dev+0xb4/0x130 [c000000003633a90] [c000000000cee564] driver_attach+0x34/0x50 [c000000003633ab0] [c000000000ced878] bus_add_driver+0x218/0x300 [c000000003633b40] [c000000000cf1144] driver_register+0xa4/0x1b0 [c000000003633bb0] [c000000000d21a0c] __nd_driver_register+0x5c/0x100 [c000000003633c10] [c00000000206a2e8] dax_pmem_init+0x34/0x48 [c000000003633c30] [c0000000000132d0] do_one_initcall+0x60/0x320 [c000000003633d00] [c0000000020051b0] kernel_init_freeable+0x360/0x400 [c000000003633de0] [c000000000013764] kernel_init+0x34/0x1d0 [c000000003633e50] [c00000000000de14] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00213 11th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.1.184, 6.3.5, 6.4Red Hat: 1 advisoryRed Hat: 3 without a fix

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux5.19 and later6.1.184, 6.3.5, 6.4Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.19 and later Fixed in 6.1.184, 6.3.5, 6.4 Patch available CNA

CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1

Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*——Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.184, 6.3.5, 6.4

Red Hat 1 advisory

  • RHSA-2023:6583 Released 2023-11-07 · Red Hat rating Important
    kernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update
    • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, libperf-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3 +11
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool-7.2.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-64k-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3 +29
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3 +9
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3 +11

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 4 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-53706
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-6xfg-j7h4-rj4m

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2021-02452 Incorrect authorization in Ubuntu linux kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
See all 21727 →

Sources