CVE-2023-53747

vc_screen: reload load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_write() to avoid UAF

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: December 8, 2025 at 01:19 AM UTC
Updated: October 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

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

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

2.6.38ac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff
Vendor states this is fixed in 0deff678157333d775af190f84696336cdcccd6d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 11dddfbb7a4e62489b01074d6c04d9d1b42e4047 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 1de42e7653d6714a7507ba6696151a1fa028c69f (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3338d0b9acde770ee588eead5cac32c25e7048fc (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8fb9ea65c9d1338b0d2bb0a9122dc942cdd32357 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 934de9a9b659785fed3e820bc0c813a460c71fea (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in a4e3c4c65ae8510e01352c9a4347e05c035b2ce2 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in e3d1adcad5b73c7ed0c7edb35ab68abcaa45cf67 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2.6.38 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.14.327 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.19.284 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.181 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.113 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.4.244 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.30 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3.4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.4 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED

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