NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2023-53044

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm stats: check for and propagate alloc_percpu failure Check alloc_precpu()'s return value and return an error from dm_stats_init() if it fails. Update alloc_dev() to fail if dm_stats_init() does. Otherwise, a NULL pointer dereference will occur in dm_stats_cleanup() even if dm-stats isn't being actively used.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (9.2th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 9th percentile — 9.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2023-53044: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions fd2ed4d252701d3bbed4cd3e3d267ad469bb832a, 3.12, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.3

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53044?
CVE-2023-53044 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-05-02.
How severe is CVE-2023-53044?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.