CVE-2023-53176

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: 8250: Reinit port->pm on port specific driver unbind When we unbind a serial port hardware specific 8250 driver, the generic serial8250 driver takes over the port. After that we see an oops about 10 seconds later. This can produce the following at least on some TI SoCs: Unhandled fault: imprecise external abort (0x1406) Internal error: : 1406 [#1] SMP ARM Turns out that we may still have the serial port hardware specific driver port->pm in use, and serial8250_pm() tries to call it after the port specific driver is gone: serial8250_pm [8250_base] from uart_change_pm+0x54/0x8c [serial_base] uart_change_pm [serial_base] from uart_hangup+0x154/0x198 [serial_base] uart_hangup [serial_base] from __tty_hangup.part.0+0x328/0x37c __tty_hangup.part.0 from disassociate_ctty+0x154/0x20c disassociate_ctty from do_exit+0x744/0xaac do_exit from do_group_exit+0x40/0x8c do_group_exit from __wake_up_parent+0x0/0x1c Let's fix the issue by calling serial8250_set_defaults() in serial8250_unregister_port(). This will set the port back to using the serial8250 default functions, and sets the port->pm to point to serial8250_pm.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-09-15
Last modified 2025-12-02
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

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 2.6.37 and later are affected. Fixed in 4.14.316, 4.19.284, 5.4.244, 5.10.181, 5.15.113, 6.1.30, 6.3.4, 6.4 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 2.6.37
Fixed in
✓ 4.14.316 4.14.x ✓ 4.19.284 4.19.x ✓ 5.4.244 5.4.x ✓ 5.10.181 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.113 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.30 6.1.x ✓ 6.3.4 6.3.x ✓ 6.4

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53176 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

8 patch commits total View all on NVD

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2023-53176?

    CVE-2023-53176 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.37 onward and has been patched in 4.14.316, 4.19.284, 5.4.244 and others. CVE-2023-53176 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53176?

    CVE-2023-53176 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-2023-53176?

    Yes — CVE-2023-53176 has been patched. Fixed versions include 4.14.316, 4.19.284, 5.4.244 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.37 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2023-53176 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2023-53176 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

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