5.5

CVE-2023-53260: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSS: 5.5v3.1MediumModified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53260DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53260
Published 15-09-2025Last modified 11-05-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-53260 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3.5% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
22/100
0100
Low · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.15%
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 11 · Related 10
RHSA-2025:6966SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1

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: ovl: fix null pointer dereference in ovl_permission() Following process: P1 P2 path_lookupat link_path_walk inode_permission ovl_permission ovl_i_path_real(inode, &realpath) path->dentry = ovl_i_dentry_upper(inode) drop_cache __dentry_kill(ovl_dentry) iput(ovl_inode) ovl_destroy_inode(ovl_inode) dput(oi->__upperdentry) dentry_kill(upperdentry) dentry_unlink_inode upperdentry->d_inode = NULL realinode = d_inode(realpath.dentry) // return NULL inode_permission(realinode) inode->i_sb // NULL pointer dereference , will trigger an null pointer dereference at realinode: [ 335.664979] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000002 [ 335.668032] CPU: 0 PID: 2592 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.3.0 [ 335.669956] RIP: 0010:inode_permission+0x33/0x2c0 [ 335.678939] Call Trace: [ 335.679165] <TASK> [ 335.679371] ovl_permission+0xde/0x320 [ 335.679723] inode_permission+0x15e/0x2c0 [ 335.680090] link_path_walk+0x115/0x550 [ 335.680771] path_lookupat.isra.0+0xb2/0x200 [ 335.681170] filename_lookup+0xda/0x240 [ 335.681922] vfs_statx+0xa6/0x1f0 [ 335.682233] vfs_fstatat+0x7b/0xb0 Fetch a reproducer in [Link]. Use the helper ovl_i_path_realinode() to get realinode and then do non-nullptr checking.

CVSS metrics

4 scores · 4 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.15%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

4%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

0.00 pp

From 0.14% on 22-09-2026

22-09-202622-10-2026
EPSS score
0.15%

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

Ubuntu84 products
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.13All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c, < 53dd2ca2c02fdcfe3aad2345091d371063f97d17 | ≥ 4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c, < 69f9ae7edf9ec0ff500429101923347fcba5c8c4 | ≥ 4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c, < 1a73f5b8f079fd42a544c1600beface50c63af7c | 5.19
  • linux_kernel≥ 5.19, < 6.1.43 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.4.4
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.52-1 | < 6.4.4-1

3 vendors · 87 products

References

7 links