What is CVE-2023-53988?

CVE-2023-53988 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability, affecting Linux kernel versions from 5.15 onward and patched in 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 and others. CVE-2023-53988 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53988?

CVE-2023-53988 has a CVSS score of pending NVD analysis out of 10, rated awaiting scoring severity.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53988?

Yes, CVE-2023-53988 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.15 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2023-53988 actively exploited?

CVE-2023-53988 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2023-53988

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Fix slab-out-of-bounds read in hdr_delete_de() Here is a BUG report from syzbot: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hdr_delete_de+0xe0/0x150 fs/ntfs3/index.c:806 Read of size 16842960 at addr ffff888079cc0600 by task syz-executor934/3631 Call Trace: memmove+0x25/0x60 mm/kasan/shadow.c:54 hdr_delete_de+0xe0/0x150 fs/ntfs3/index.c:806 indx_delete_entry+0x74f/0x3670 fs/ntfs3/index.c:2193 ni_remove_name+0x27a/0x980 fs/ntfs3/frecord.c:2910 ntfs_unlink_inode+0x3d4/0x720 fs/ntfs3/inode.c:1712 ntfs_rename+0x41a/0xcb0 fs/ntfs3/namei.c:276 Before using the meta-data in struct INDEX_HDR, we need to check index header valid or not. Otherwise, the corruptedi (or malicious) fs image can cause out-of-bounds access which could make kernel panic.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-12-24

Last modified 2026-04-15

Patch available

Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.15 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2, 6.4 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 5.15

Fixed in

✓ 5.15.111 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.28 6.1.x ✓ 6.2.15 6.2.x ✓ 6.3.2 6.3.x ✓ 6.4

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53988 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/114204d25e1dffdd3a0c1cfbba219afd344f4b4f
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4a034ece7e2877673d9085d6e7ed45e6ee40b761
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9163a5b4ed290da4a7d23fa92533e0e81fd0166e
Patch

5 patch commits total View all on NVD

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53988?

CVE-2023-53988 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.15 onward and has been patched in 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 and others. CVE-2023-53988 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53988?

Yes — CVE-2023-53988 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.15 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2023-53988 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2023-53988 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.