5.5

CVE-2023-53167: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSS: 5.5v3.1MediumAnalyzed
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53167DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53167
Published 15-09-2025Last modified 11-05-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-53167 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
22/100
0100
Low · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.16%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 14 · Related 14
SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1SUSE-SU-2025:03615-1SUSE-SU-2025:03628-1SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1

Timeline

  1. 15-09-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 11-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix null pointer dereference in tracing_err_log_open() Fix an issue in function 'tracing_err_log_open'. The function doesn't call 'seq_open' if the file is opened only with write permissions, which results in 'file->private_data' being left as null. If we then use 'lseek' on that opened file, 'seq_lseek' dereferences 'file->private_data' in 'mutex_lock(&m->lock)', resulting in a kernel panic. Writing to this node requires root privileges, therefore this bug has very little security impact. Tracefs node: /sys/kernel/tracing/error_log Example Kernel panic: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000038 Call trace: mutex_lock+0x30/0x110 seq_lseek+0x34/0xb8 __arm64_sys_lseek+0x6c/0xb8 invoke_syscall+0x58/0x13c el0_svc_common+0xc4/0x10c do_el0_svc+0x24/0x98 el0_svc+0x24/0x88 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xe4 el0t_64_sync+0x1b4/0x1b8 Code: d503201f aa0803e0 aa1f03e1 aa0103e9 (c8e97d02) ---[ end trace 561d1b49c12cf8a5 ]--- Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops: Fatal exception

CVSS metrics

3 scores · 3 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.16%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

5%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

0.00 pp

From 0.16% on 21-09-2026

21-09-202621-10-2026
EPSS score
0.16%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Ubuntu124 products
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.4.0-166.183 | < 5.15.0-86.96
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.4.0-1113.123 | < 5.15.0-1047.52
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 93114cbc7cb169f6f26eeaed5286b91bb86b463b | ≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 7060e5aac6dc195124c106f49106d653a416323a | ≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 3b5d9b7b875968a8a8c99dac45cb85b705c44802 | ≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 938d5b7a75e18264887387ddf9169db6d8aeef98 | ≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 1e1c9aa9288a46c342f0f2c5c0b1c0876b9b0276 | ≥ 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a, < 02b0095e2fbbc060560c1065f86a211d91e27b26 | 5.2
  • linux_kernel≥ 5.2, < 5.4.251 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.188 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.121 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.40 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.4.5
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.52-1 | < 6.4.11-1

3 vendors · 127 products

References

10 links