CVE-2023-53747
NoneCVSS
—
EPSS
0.1%
Published
Dec 8, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A flaw in the Linux kernel's console handling could let a local user crash the system or potentially take full control.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Local User
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Impact
- Full Compromise
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Use After Free
- Remediation
- Upgrade
- Effort
- Medium
- Patch risk
- Low
What it actually does
Use-after-free in drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c where vc_data pointer is dereferenced via vcs_size() after console_unlock() allows vc_port_destruct() to free the structure, enabling read of slab memory.
Why it matters to the business
Local attackers on affected Linux systems can trigger kernel crashes, memory corruption, or potential privilege escalation, leading to denial of service or full host compromise in multi-user or containerized environments.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker opens a virtual console device, issues ioctls to trigger vt_disallocate_all and port destruction, then performs a write to /dev/vcs while the pointer is stale, causing the UAF in the write loop after console_lock.
How to fix it
Apply the upstream fix from commit 934de9a9b659785fed3e820bc0c813a460c71fea or later; update to fixed package versions such as node-css-what 5.1.0-2 on Ubuntu 22.04, 3.2.1-1ubuntu0.1~esm1 on 20.04 Pro, or equivalent distribution kernels containing the patch.
How to confirm the fix worked
Verify kernel source contains the reload of vc_data after console_lock() in vcs_write(); confirm running kernel version includes commit 934de9a9b659 or test with syzkaller reproducer for absence of KASAN report.
Typical attack path
- Open /dev/tty or /dev/vcs device
- Issue VT_DISALLOCATE or related ioctls to free vc_data
- Call write() on vcs device inside the window before reload
- Trigger vcs_size() on the dangling pointer
- Read or corrupt freed slab memory for escalation
How to detect it
Inspect kernel logs for KASAN slab-use-after-free reports referencing vcs_size or vcs_write; correlate with tty_ioctl and vt_ioctl entries showing vt_disallocate_all followed by vcs writes; review audit logs for unusual device opens by non-root processes.
- BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in vcs_size
- vcs_write (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:664)
- vt_disallocate_all (drivers/tty/vt/vt_ioctl.c:662)
What your security team should do
- Patch all Linux kernels to the fixed commit or distribution equivalent immediately
- Restrict unprivileged access to /dev/vcs and virtual console devices via permissions or SELinux/AppArmor
- Monitor for local privilege-escalation attempts on systems hosting untrusted workloads
- Reboot systems after kernel updates to load patched modules
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vc_screen: reload load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_write() to avoid UAF After a call to console_unlock() in vcs_write() the vc_data struct can be freed by vc_port_destruct(). Because of that, the struct vc_data pointer must be reloaded in the while loop in vcs_write() after console_lock() to avoid a UAF when vcs_size() is called. Syzkaller reported a UAF in vcs_size(). BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880beab89a8 by task repro_vcs_size/4119 Call Trace: <TASK> __asan_report_load4_noabort (mm/kasan/report_generic.c:380) vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) vcs_write (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:664) vfs_write (fs/read_write.c:582 fs/read_write.c:564) ... <TASK> Allocated by task 1213: kmalloc_trace (mm/slab_common.c:1064) vc_allocate (./include/linux/slab.h:559 ./include/linux/slab.h:680 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1078 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1058) con_install (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:3334) tty_init_dev (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1303 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1415 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1392) tty_open (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2082 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2128) chrdev_open (fs/char_dev.c:415) do_dentry_open (fs/open.c:921) vfs_open (fs/open.c:1052) ... Freed by task 4116: kfree (mm/slab_common.c:1016) vc_port_destruct (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1044) tty_port_destructor (drivers/tty/tty_port.c:296) tty_port_put (drivers/tty/tty_port.c:312) vt_disallocate_all (drivers/tty/vt/vt_ioctl.c:662 (discriminator 2)) vt_ioctl (drivers/tty/vt/vt_ioctl.c:903) tty_ioctl (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2778) ... The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8880beab8800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 424 bytes inside of freed 1024-byte region [ffff8880beab8800, ffff8880beab8c00) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:00000000afc77580 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0xbeab8 head:00000000afc77580 order:3 entire_mapcount:0 nr_pages_mapped:0 pincount:0 flags: 0xfffffc0010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=1|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) page_type: 0xffffffff() raw: 000fffffc0010200 ffff888100042dc0 ffffea000426de00 dead000000000002 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff8880beab8880: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff8880beab8900: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb >ffff8880beab8980: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff8880beab8a00: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff8880beab8a80: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ================================================================== Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Kernel | 2.6.38 | 4.14.327 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP4 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP4_Update_48 | 0 | 1-150400.9.7.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | kernel-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | kernel-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.15.142.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | kernel-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.13.118.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | kernel-source-rt | 0 | 5.14.21-150500.13.118.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-default | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1.150400.24.98.3 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-docs | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-source | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | kernel-syms | 0 | 5.14.21-150400.24.194.1 |
Related vulnerabilities
- CVE-2026-23226 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: add chann_lock… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23225 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched/mmcid: Don't… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23230 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: split… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23224 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: erofs: fix UAF issue… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23227 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/exynos: vidi: use… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23223 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfs: fix UAF in… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23228 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: server: fix leak… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23229 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: virtio - Add… Also affects Kernel