What is CVE-2023-53011?

CVE-2023-53011 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, classified as a NULL Pointer Dereference flaw (CWE-476), affecting Linux kernel versions from 5.14 onward and patched in 5.15.91, 6.1.9 and 6.2. CVE-2023-53011 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53011?

CVE-2023-53011 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53011?

Yes, CVE-2023-53011 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.91, 6.1.9 and 6.2. If you are running Linux kernel 5.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2023-53011 actively exploited?

CVE-2023-53011 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)?

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL, typically causing a crash. See MITRE CWE for full details: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/476.html

CVE-2023-53011

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: stmmac: enable all safety features by default In the original implementation of dwmac5 commit 8bf993a5877e ("net: stmmac: Add support for DWMAC5 and implement Safety Features") all safety features were enabled by default. Later it seems some implementations didn't have support for all the features, so in commit 5ac712dcdfef ("net: stmmac: enable platform specific safety features") the safety_feat_cfg structure was added to the callback and defined for some platforms to selectively enable these safety features. The problem is that only certain platforms were given that software support. If the automotive safety package bit is set in the hardware features register the safety feature callback is called for the platform, and for platforms that didn't get a safety_feat_cfg defined this results in the following NULL pointer dereference: [ 7.933303] Call trace: [ 7.935812] dwmac5_safety_feat_config+0x20/0x170 [stmmac] [ 7.941455] __stmmac_open+0x16c/0x474 [stmmac] [ 7.946117] stmmac_open+0x38/0x70 [stmmac] [ 7.950414] __dev_open+0x100/0x1dc [ 7.954006] __dev_change_flags+0x18c/0x204 [ 7.958297] dev_change_flags+0x24/0x6c [ 7.962237] do_setlink+0x2b8/0xfa4 [ 7.965827] __rtnl_newlink+0x4ec/0x840 [ 7.969766] rtnl_newlink+0x50/0x80 [ 7.973353] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x12c/0x374 [ 7.977557] netlink_rcv_skb+0x5c/0x130 [ 7.981500] rtnetlink_rcv+0x18/0x2c [ 7.985172] netlink_unicast+0x2e8/0x340 [ 7.989197] netlink_sendmsg+0x1a8/0x420 [ 7.993222] ____sys_sendmsg+0x218/0x280 [ 7.997249] ___sys_sendmsg+0xac/0x100 [ 8.001103] __sys_sendmsg+0x84/0xe0 [ 8.004776] __arm64_sys_sendmsg+0x24/0x30 [ 8.008983] invoke_syscall+0x48/0x114 [ 8.012840] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xcc/0xec [ 8.017665] do_el0_svc+0x38/0xb0 [ 8.021071] el0_svc+0x2c/0x84 [ 8.024212] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xf4/0x120 [ 8.028598] el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194 Go back to the original behavior, if the automotive safety package is found to be supported in hardware enable all the features unless safety_feat_cfg is passed in saying this particular platform only supports a subset of the features.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-03-27

Last modified 2025-10-01

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness type

CWE-476

CVE-2023-53011 is a NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability

What is NULL Pointer Dereference?

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL, typically causing a crash. Learn more on MITRE CWE

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.14 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.91, 6.1.9, 6.2 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 5.14

Fixed in

✓ 5.15.91 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.9 6.1.x ✓ 6.2

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53011 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/120b8e527e07c65de7f2b9018dcd9d17e66f2427
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aebf7e62708ba706ee7bf484c9023b15c214e92a
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fdfc76a116b5e9d3e98e6c96fe83b42d011d21d4
Patch

Details

CVE ID CVE-2023-53011

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-03-27

Modified 2025-10-01

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53011?

CVE-2023-53011 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 , classified as a NULL Pointer Dereference flaw (CWE-476) . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.14 onward and has been patched in 5.15.91, 6.1.9 and 6.2. CVE-2023-53011 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53011?

CVE-2023-53011 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53011?

Yes — CVE-2023-53011 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.91, 6.1.9 and 6.2. If you are running Linux kernel 5.14 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2023-53011 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2023-53011 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
What is NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)?

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL, typically causing a crash. View CWE-476 on MITRE CWE →