NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2023-53250
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: firmware: dmi-sysfs: Fix null-ptr-deref in dmi_sysfs_register_handle KASAN reported a null-ptr-deref error: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000008-0x000000000000000f] CPU: 0 PID: 1373 Comm: modprobe Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) RIP: 0010:dmi_sysfs_entry_release ... Call Trace: <TASK> kobject_put dmi_sysfs_register_handle (drivers/firmware/dmi-sysfs.c:540) dmi_sysfs dmi_decode_table (drivers/firmware/dmi_scan.c:133) dmi_walk (drivers/firmware/dmi_scan.c:1115) dmi_sysfs_init (drivers/firmware/dmi-sysfs.c:149) dmi_sysfs do_one_initcall (init/main.c:1296) ... Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception Kernel Offset: 0x4000000 from 0xffffffff81000000 ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception ]--- It is because previous patch added kobject_put() to release the memory which will call dmi_sysfs_entry_release() and list_del(). However, list_add_tail(entry->list) is called after the error block, so the list_head is uninitialized and cannot be deleted. Move error handling to after list_add_tail to fix this.
EPSS: 0.001 (3.4th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 660ba678f9998aca6db74f2dd912fa5124f0fa31, 4.19.247, 6.2.3
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2023-53250?
- CVE-2023-53250 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-09-15.
- How severe is CVE-2023-53250?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2023-53250 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.