Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2023-53988

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Fix slab-out-of-bounds read in hdr_delete_de() Here is a BUG report from syzbot: BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hdr_delete_de+0xe0/0x150 fs/ntfs3/index.c:806 Read of size 16842960 at addr ffff888079cc0600 by task syz-executor934/3631 Call Trace: memmove+0x25/0x60 mm/kasan/shadow.c:54 hdr_delete_de+0xe0/0x150 fs/ntfs3/index.c:806 indx_delete_entry+0x74f/0x3670 fs/ntfs3/index.c:2193 ni_remove_name+0x27a/0x980 fs/ntfs3/frecord.c:2910 ntfs_unlink_inode+0x3d4/0x720 fs/ntfs3/inode.c:1712 ntfs_rename+0x41a/0xcb0 fs/ntfs3/namei.c:276 Before using the meta-data in struct INDEX_HDR, we need to check index header valid or not. Otherwise, the corruptedi (or malicious) fs image can cause out-of-bounds access which could make kernel panic.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (5.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 5.3% 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-2023-53988: 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 82cae269cfa953032fbb8980a7d554d60fb00b17, 5.15, 0

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53988?
CVE-2023-53988 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-12-24.
How severe is CVE-2023-53988?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.