CVE-2023-54198

tty: fix out-of-bounds access in tty_driver_lookup_tty()

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: December 30, 2025 at 12:09 PM UTC
Updated: October 28, 2026 at 07:10 PM 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
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tty: fix out-of-bounds access in tty_driver_lookup_tty() When specifying an invalid console= device like console=tty3270, tty_driver_lookup_tty() returns the tty struct without checking whether index is a valid number. To reproduce: qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -nographic -serial mon:stdio \ -kernel ../linux-build-x86/arch/x86/boot/bzImage \ -append "console=ttyS0 console=tty3270" This crashes with: [ 0.770599] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000ef [ 0.771265] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 0.771773] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 0.772609] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI [ 0.774878] RIP: 0010:tty_open+0x268/0x6f0 [ 0.784013] chrdev_open+0xbd/0x230 [ 0.784444] ? cdev_device_add+0x80/0x80 [ 0.784920] do_dentry_open+0x1e0/0x410 [ 0.785389] path_openat+0xca9/0x1050 [ 0.785813] do_filp_open+0xaa/0x150 [ 0.786240] file_open_name+0x133/0x1b0 [ 0.786746] filp_open+0x27/0x50 [ 0.787244] console_on_rootfs+0x14/0x4d [ 0.787800] kernel_init_freeable+0x1e4/0x20d [ 0.788383] ? rest_init+0xc0/0xc0 [ 0.788881] kernel_init+0x11/0x120 [ 0.789356] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30

Affected

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

2.6.2899f1fe189daf8e99a847e420567e49dd7ee2aae7
Vendor states this is fixed in 3df6f492f500a16c231f07ccc6f6ed1302caddf9 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 765566110eb0da3cf60198b0165ecceeaafa6444 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 84ea44dc3e4ecb2632586238014bf6722aa5843b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 953a4a352a0c185460ae1449e4c6e6658e55fdfc (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in b79109d6470aaae7062998353e3a19449055829d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in db4df8e9d79e7d37732c1a1b560958e8dadfefa1 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f9d9d25ad1f0d060eaf297a2f7f03b5855a45561 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in fcfeaa570f7a5c2d5f4f14931909531ff18b7fde (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2.6.28 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.14.308 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.19.276 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.173 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.100 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.4.235 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.18 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.2.5 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3 (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

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