CVE-2023-54137
NoneCVSS
—
EPSS
0.2%
Published
Dec 24, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A flaw in the system allowed private kernel data to accidentally be sent to programs asking for information, which has now been corrected in an update.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Low Privilege
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Impact
- Data Exposure
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Information Disclosure
- Remediation
- Upgrade
- Effort
- Medium
- Patch risk
- Low
What it actually does
The vulnerability exposes uninitialized memory from a stack-allocated structure containing a padding hole to userspace through the VFIO_IOMMU_GET_INFO ioctl.
Why it matters to the business
Attackers may obtain fragments of kernel memory, potentially revealing sensitive information that could aid further attacks, though exploitation likelihood remains low given low EPSS and no known campaigns.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker with access to VFIO devices invokes the IOMMU info ioctl, causing the kernel to copy a partially uninitialized structure to userspace, leaking the padding bytes.
How to fix it
Upgrade kube-state-metrics (MinimOS) to version 2.16.0-r3 or later.
How to confirm the fix worked
Verify the package version is at least 2.16.0-r3 and test that the ioctl no longer leaks uninitialized data.
Typical attack path
- Obtain access to a VFIO-enabled device or IOMMU context
- Invoke VFIO_IOMMU_GET_INFO ioctl
- Inspect the returned capability structure for leaked data
How to detect it
Examine logs for unusual VFIO ioctl calls or inspect memory dumps from userspace processes interacting with VFIO for patterns matching kernel stack data.
What your security team should do
- Apply the fixed package version immediately
- Monitor for any VFIO-related anomalies
- Review systems using VFIO for exposure
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vfio/type1: fix cap_migration information leak Fix an information leak where an uninitialized hole in struct vfio_iommu_type1_info_cap_migration on the stack is exposed to userspace. The definition of struct vfio_iommu_type1_info_cap_migration contains a hole as shown in this pahole(1) output: struct vfio_iommu_type1_info_cap_migration { struct vfio_info_cap_header header; /* 0 8 */ __u32 flags; /* 8 4 */ /* XXX 4 bytes hole, try to pack */ __u64 pgsize_bitmap; /* 16 8 */ __u64 max_dirty_bitmap_size; /* 24 8 */ /* size: 32, cachelines: 1, members: 4 */ /* sum members: 28, holes: 1, sum holes: 4 */ /* last cacheline: 32 bytes */ }; The cap_mig variable is filled in without initializing the hole: static int vfio_iommu_migration_build_caps(struct vfio_iommu *iommu, struct vfio_info_cap *caps) { struct vfio_iommu_type1_info_cap_migration cap_mig; cap_mig.header.id = VFIO_IOMMU_TYPE1_INFO_CAP_MIGRATION; cap_mig.header.version = 1; cap_mig.flags = 0; /* support minimum pgsize */ cap_mig.pgsize_bitmap = (size_t)1 << __ffs(iommu->pgsize_bitmap); cap_mig.max_dirty_bitmap_size = DIRTY_BITMAP_SIZE_MAX; return vfio_info_add_capability(caps, &cap_mig.header, sizeof(cap_mig)); } The structure is then copied to a temporary location on the heap. At this point it's already too late and ioctl(VFIO_IOMMU_GET_INFO) copies it to userspace later: int vfio_info_add_capability(struct vfio_info_cap *caps, struct vfio_info_cap_header *cap, size_t size) { struct vfio_info_cap_header *header; header = vfio_info_cap_add(caps, size, cap->id, cap->version); if (IS_ERR(header)) return PTR_ERR(header); memcpy(header + 1, cap + 1, size - sizeof(*header)); return 0; } This issue was found by code inspection.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_19 | 0 | 1-150600.13.3.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
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