NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2023-53470

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ionic: catch failure from devlink_alloc Add a check for NULL on the alloc return. If devlink_alloc() fails and we try to use devlink_priv() on the NULL return, the kernel gets very unhappy and panics. With this fix, the driver load will still fail, but at least it won't panic the kernel.

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 (4.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.0% 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-2023-53470: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

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

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53470?
CVE-2023-53470 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-10-01.
How severe is CVE-2023-53470?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.