CVE-2023-53612

hwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: October 4, 2025 at 03:44 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:45 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

Using Linux by Linux?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect Linux - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling Coretemp's platform driver is unconventional. All the real work is done globally by the initcall and CPU hotplug notifiers, while the "driver" effectively just wraps an allocation and the registration of the hwmon interface in a long-winded round-trip through the driver core. The whole logic of dynamically creating and destroying platform devices to bring the interfaces up and down is error prone, since it assumes platform_device_add() will synchronously bind the driver and set drvdata before it returns, thus results in a NULL dereference if drivers_autoprobe is turned off for the platform bus. Furthermore, the unusual approach of doing that from within a CPU hotplug notifier, already commented in the code that it deadlocks suspend, also causes lockdep issues for other drivers or subsystems which may want to legitimately register a CPU hotplug notifier from a platform bus notifier. All of these issues can be solved by ripping this unusual behaviour out completely, simply tying the platform devices to the lifetime of the module itself, and directly managing the hwmon interfaces from the hotplug notifiers. There is a slight user-visible change in that /sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp will no longer appear, and /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.n will remain present if package n is hotplugged off, but hwmon users should really only be looking for the presence of the hwmon interfaces, whose behaviour remains unchanged.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

4.10 ≤ v < 5.10.1734.10 ≤ v < 5.15.994.10 ≤ v < 5.4.2354.10 ≤ v < 6.1.164.10 ≤ v < 6.2.34.10 ≤ v < 6.35.11 ≤ v < 5.15.995.16 ≤ v < 6.1.165.5 ≤ v < 5.10.1736.2 ≤ v < 6.2.34.10e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1
Vendor states this is fixed in 4000384684f612b3645a944f6acde0e65ac370b8 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 52ea47a0ddfbc5fe05e873d3f5a59db4ba3e03fe (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5735878a7b7db7e9ce731cb36cec298a9de67549 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6d03bbff456befeccdd4d663177c4d6c75d0c4ff (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8fcdbc4bc01365f4b10fed7db544a3149e3054fd (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in c57a8d14d7880521150ee801d53a0a64fdffd9c8 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.10 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.173 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.99 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.4.235 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.16 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.2.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3 (unaffected)

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-476

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card