CVE-2023-53989

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: mm: fix VA-range sanity check Both create_mapping_noalloc() and update_mapping_prot() sanity-check their 'virt' parameter, but the check itself doesn't make much sense. The condition used today appears to be a historical accident. The sanity-check condition: if ((virt >= PAGE_END) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } ... can only be true for the KASAN shadow region or the module region, and there's no reason to exclude these specifically for creating and updateing mappings. When arm64 support was first upstreamed in commit: c1cc1552616d0f35 ("arm64: MMU initialisation") ... the condition was: if (virt < VMALLOC_START) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } At the time, VMALLOC_START was the lowest kernel address, and this was checking whether 'virt' would be translated via TTBR1. Subsequently in commit: 14c127c957c1c607 ("arm64: mm: Flip kernel VA space") ... the condition was changed to: if ((virt >= VA_START) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } This appear to have been a thinko. The commit moved the linear map to the bottom of the kernel address space, with VMALLOC_START being at the halfway point. The old condition would warn for changes to the linear map below this, and at the time VA_START was the end of the linear map. Subsequently we cleaned up the naming of VA_START in commit: 77ad4ce69321abbe ("arm64: memory: rename VA_START to PAGE_END") ... keeping the erroneous condition as: if ((virt >= PAGE_END) && (virt < VMALLOC_START)) { [ ... warning here ... ] return; } Correct the condition to check against the start of the TTBR1 address space, which is currently PAGE_OFFSET. This simplifies the logic, and more clearly matches the "outside kernel range" message in the warning.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-12-24
Last modified 2026-06-01
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.4 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.150, 6.1.175, 6.4.7, 6.5 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.4
Fixed in
✓ 5.4.251 5.4.x ✓ 5.10.188 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.150 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.175 6.1.x ✓ 6.4.7 6.4.x ✓ 6.5

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53989 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2023-53989?

    CVE-2023-53989 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.4 onward and has been patched in 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.150 and others. CVE-2023-53989 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53989?

    Yes — CVE-2023-53989 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.150 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.4 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2023-53989 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2023-53989 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.