Vulnerability Database

374,078

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2023-53236 — linux / linux_kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

iommufd: Do not corrupt the pfn list when doing batch carry

If batch->end is 0 then setting npfns[0] before computing the new value of pfns will fail to adjust the pfn and result in various page accounting corruptions. It should be ordered after.

This seems to result in various kinds of page meta-data corruption related failures:

WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 527 at mm/gup.c:75 try_grab_folio+0x503/0x740 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 PID: 527 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.3.0-rc2-eeac8ede1755+ #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:try_grab_folio+0x503/0x740 Code: e3 01 48 89 de e8 6d c1 dd ff 48 85 db 0f 84 7c fe ff ff e8 4f bf dd ff 49 8d 47 ff 48 89 45 d0 e9 73 fe ff ff e8 3d bf dd ff <0f> 0b 31 db e9 d0 fc ff ff e8 2f bf dd ff 48 8b 5d c8 31 ff 48 89 RSP: 0018:ffffc90000f37908 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000fffffc02 RCX: ffffffff81504c26 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff88800d030000 RDI: 0000000000000002 RBP: ffffc90000f37948 R08: 000000000003ca24 R09: 0000000000000008 R10: 000000000003ca00 R11: 0000000000000023 R12: ffffea000035d540 R13: 0000000000000001 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffea000035d540 FS: 00007fecbf659740(0000) GS:ffff88807dd00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00000000200011c3 CR3: 000000000ef66006 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> internal_get_user_pages_fast+0xd32/0x2200 pin_user_pages_fast+0x65/0x90 pfn_reader_user_pin+0x376/0x390 pfn_reader_next+0x14a/0x7b0 pfn_reader_first+0x140/0x1b0 iopt_area_fill_domain+0x74/0x210 iopt_table_add_domain+0x30e/0x6e0 iommufd_device_selftest_attach+0x7f/0x140 iommufd_test+0x10ff/0x16f0 iommufd_fops_ioctl+0x206/0x330 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x10e/0x160 do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

  • Published: Sep 15, 2025
  • Updated: Dec 5, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2023-53236
  • Severity: Medium
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: High
  • Score: 7.8
  • AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

No CWE or OWASP classifications available.

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

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Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

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