CVE-2023-53210: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-53210 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 4.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

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: md/raid5-cache: fix null-ptr-deref for r5l_flush_stripe_to_raid() r5l_flush_stripe_to_raid() will check if the list 'flushing_ios' is empty, and then submit 'flush_bio', however, r5l_log_flush_endio() is clearing the list first and then clear the bio, which will cause null-ptr-deref: T1: submit flush io raid5d handle_active_stripes r5l_flush_stripe_to_raid // list is empty // add 'io_end_ios' to the list bio_init submit_bio // io1 T2: io1 is done r5l_log_flush_endio list_splice_tail_init // clear the list T3: submit new flush io ... r5l_flush_stripe_to_raid // list is empty // add 'io_end_ios' to the list bio_init bio_uninit // clear bio->bi_blkg submit_bio // null-ptr-deref Fix this problem by clearing bio before clearing the list in r5l_log_flush_endio().

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.