CVE-2023-53176: serial: 8250: Reinit port->pm on port specific driver unbind
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2023-53176 is a high (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6.1% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 7.8, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 7 · Related 6Timeline
- 15-09-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 15-10-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
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.
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 4 sources · 1 version- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated7.8HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HDiffers
- NVDNIST5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HDiffers
EPSS trend
Probability
0.17%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
6%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
No change 0.00 pp
From 0.16% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeNo weakness data has been published for this record.
Affected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu124 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.4.0-162.179 | < 5.15.0-83.92
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.4.0-1109.118 | < 5.15.0-1044.49
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < 490bf37eaabb0a857ed1ae8e75d8854e41662f1c | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < c9e080c3005fd183c56ff8f4d75edb5da0765d2c | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < d5cd2928d31042a7c0a01464f9a8d95be736421d | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < 2c86a1305c1406f45ea780d06953c484ea1d9e6e | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < 1ba5594739d858e524ff0f398ee1ebfe0a8b9d41 | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < af4d6dbb1a92ea424ad1ba1d0c88c7fa2345d872 | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < 8e596aed5f2f98cf3e6e98d6fe1d689f4a319308 | ≥ c161afe9759ddcc174d08e7c4f683d08ac9ba86f, < 04e82793f068d2f0ffe62fcea03d007a8cdc16a7 | 2.6.37
- linux_kernel< 4.14.316 | ≥ 4.15, < 4.19.284 | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.244 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.181 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.113 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.30 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.3.4
Debian1 product
- linux< 6.1.37-1 | < 6.3.7-1
3 vendors · 127 products
