CVE-2023-53686
MediumCVSS 5.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk3th percentile - higher than 3% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, handshake_nl_done_doit() contains a null-ptr-deref when socket lookup fails. It calls trace_handshake_cmd_done_err() before releasing the file, which can lead to dereferencing a freed socket and accessing an invalid address. The vulnerability can be triggered by a local user to cause a kernel panic (denial of service).
Risk Assessment
A local attacker can trigger a kernel oops/panic, causing a denial of service (DoS) on the affected system. This requires the ability to invoke a specific netlink operation as an unprivileged user.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version that includes the fix (the commit addressing this issue). If updating is not possible, consider restricting access to the handshake netlink interface for unprivileged users.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-99259Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the soc/tegra: pmc driver has an uninitialised early_pmc->rate variable for legacy 32-bit Tegra devices. The variable is never configured and remains 0, triggering a warning in tegra_pmc_enter_suspend_mode(). The issue appeared after the PMC driver was changed to create the PMC context dynamically, updating rate only in the new context.
- CVE-2026-99258Unknown
In the Linux kernel, hv_apicid_to_vp_index() uses per-CPU hypercall input and output pages. In an SEV-SNP CoCo VM without a paravisor the output page is not allocated, so the hypervisor stores the resulting VP index into memory not allocated by the guest. The fix uses the input page for both input and output.
- CVE-2026-99257Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the shared GPIO mechanism based on platform lookup tables requires an associated struct device. An fwnode-based lookup with no associated device currently causes a NULL-pointer dereference. The fix adds a check that lets the kernel gracefully handle this situation with an error.
- CVE-2026-99256Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the dm cache module used a rw_semaphore for background_work_lock, although write locks on rw_semaphores have strict owner semantics. The locking process was not always the same as the unlocking one, triggering a warning with CONFIG_DEBUG_RWSEMS during suspend/resume of a cache device. The fix replaces the rw_semaphore with a spinlock and a wait queue.
- CVE-2026-99251Unknown
In the Linux kernel, init_vp_index() contains a retry loop that strips CPUs from a node if they are already in the allocated cpumask or outside the HK_TYPE_MANAGED_IRQ housekeeping cpumask. If the housekeeping cpumask contains no CPU in that node, the loop becomes infinite. The fix skips NUMA nodes with no housekeeping CPU and aborts early when no online housekeeping CPUs exist.
- CVE-2026-99250Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the NBCON console printing kthreads are started very early during boot via early_initcall(). Asynchronously enabling/disabling interrupts during early boot may interfere with early SMP setup on some hardware platforms, causing hangs. The fix postpones kthread startup until after all arch initcalls have completed.
- CVE-2026-99249Unknown
In the Linux kernel, zap_pid_ns_processes() waiting for PID namespace cleanup was not freezable. A tracer outside the namespace that does not reap its traced zombies keeps PIDs allocated, making the wait unbounded and causing every suspend attempt to fail. The fix makes the wait loops use TASK_FREEZABLE states so the freezer can freeze waiting tasks.
- CVE-2026-99248Unknown
In the Linux kernel, the i2c: xiic driver was changed to restore non-managed runtime PM instead of the devres-based approach to fix a clk WARN flood. The managed release tore down runtime PM in the wrong order, causing the clock to be disabled twice and triggering "clkN already disabled" warnings on every teardown.
- CVE-2026-99247Unknown
In the Linux kernel, if trace buffer allocation fails during early boot, tracing_disabled remains set and the global trace array events list stays uninitialized. tracer_init_tracefs_work_func() runs asynchronously without checking this state and calls event_trace_init() and init_tracer_tracefs(), leading to a NULL pointer dereference Oops during boot. The fix checks tracing_disabled at the start of the work function.
- CVE-2026-99215Unknown
In the Linux kernel power supply subsystem, a use-after-free vulnerability exists. If a power supply is unregistered while its external_power_changed() callback is still running, the driver may free data that the callback is still accessing, leading to a kernel crash (NULL pointer dereference).
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/handshake: fix null-ptr-deref in handshake_nl_done_doit() We should not call trace_handshake_cmd_done_err() if socket lookup has failed. Also we should call trace_handshake_cmd_done_err() before releasing the file, otherwise dereferencing sock->sk can return garbage. This also reverts 7afc6d0a107f ("net/handshake: Fix uninitialized local variable") Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address dfff800000000003 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000018-0x000000000000001f] Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000005 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x05: level 1 translation fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000005, ISS2 = 0x00000000 CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [dfff800000000003] address between user and kernel address ranges Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000005 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Modules linked in: CPU: 1 PID: 5986 Comm: syz-executor292 Not tainted 6.5.0-rc7-syzkaller-gfe4469582053 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/26/2023 pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : handshake_nl_done_doit+0x198/0x9c8 net/handshake/netlink.c:193 lr : handshake_nl_done_doit+0x180/0x9c8 sp : ffff800096e37180 x29: ffff800096e37200 x28: 1ffff00012dc6e34 x27: dfff800000000000 x26: ffff800096e373d0 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 00000000ffffffa8 x23: ffff800096e373f0 x22: 1ffff00012dc6e38 x21: 0000000000000000 x20: ffff800096e371c0 x19: 0000000000000018 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffff800080516cc4 x15: 0000000000000001 x14: 1fffe0001b14aa3b x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000003 x8 : 0000000000000003 x7 : ffff800080afe47c x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : ffff800080a88078 x2 : 0000000000000001 x1 : 00000000ffffffa8 x0 : 0000000000000000 Call trace: handshake_nl_done_doit+0x198/0x9c8 net/handshake/netlink.c:193 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:970 [inline] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1050 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x96c/0xc50 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1067 netlink_rcv_skb+0x214/0x3c4 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2549 genl_rcv+0x38/0x50 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1078 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x660/0x8d4 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365 netlink_sendmsg+0x834/0xb18 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1914 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:725 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:748 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x56c/0x840 net/socket.c:2494 ___sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2548 [inline] __sys_sendmsg+0x26c/0x33c net/socket.c:2577 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2586 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline] __arm64_sys_sendmsg+0x80/0x94 net/socket.c:2584 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:37 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:51 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:136 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:155 el0_svc+0x58/0x16c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:678 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xfc arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:696 el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:591 Code: 12800108 b90043e8 910062b3 d343fe68 (387b6908)
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

