Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2023-53614
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/ksm: fix race with VMA iteration and mm_struct teardown exit_mmap() will tear down the VMAs and maple tree with the mmap_lock held in write mode. Ensure that the maple tree is still valid by checking ksm_test_exit() after taking the mmap_lock in read mode, but before the for_each_vma() iterator dereferences a destroyed maple tree. Since the maple tree is destroyed, the flags telling lockdep to check an external lock has been cleared. Skip the for_each_vma() iterator to avoid dereferencing a maple tree without the external lock flag, which would create a lockdep warning.
Vulnerability class: Race Condition
EPSS: 0.001 (0.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 4.7 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions a5f18ba0727656bd1fe3bcdb0d563f81790f9a04, 6.1, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel — versions 6.3
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2023-53614?
- CVE-2023-53614 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization (Race Condition). CVSS score: 4.7/10. Published 2025-10-04.
- How severe is CVE-2023-53614?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.7 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2023-53614 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.