Vulnerability · Published Mar 27, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-52973vc_screen: move load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_read() to avoid UAF

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity use-after-free in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 21% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 78.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vc_screen: move load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_read() to avoid UAF After a call to console_unlock() in vcs_read() the vc_data struct can be freed by vc_deallocate(). Because of that, the struct vc_data pointer load must be done at the top of while loop in vcs_read() to avoid a UAF when vcs_size() is called. Syzkaller reported a UAF in vcs_size(). BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881137479a8 by task 4a005ed81e27e65/1537 CPU: 0 PID: 1537 Comm: 4a005ed81e27e65 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5 #1 Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.15.0-2.module Call Trace: <TASK> __asan_report_load4_noabort (mm/kasan/report_generic.c:350) vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) vcs_read (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:415) vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:468 fs/read_write.c:450) ... </TASK> Allocated by task 1191: ... kmalloc_trace (mm/slab_common.c:1069) vc_allocate (./include/linux/slab.h:580 ./include/linux/slab.h:720 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1128 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1108) con_install (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:3383) tty_init_dev (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1301 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1413 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1390) tty_open (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2080 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2126) chrdev_open (fs/char_dev.c:415) do_dentry_open (fs/open.c:883) vfs_open (fs/open.c:1014) ... Freed by task 1548: ... kfree (mm/slab_common.c:1021) vc_port_destruct (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1094) 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:2776) ... The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888113747800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 424 bytes inside of 1024-byte region [ffff888113747800, ffff888113747c00) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:00000000b3fe6c7c refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x113740 head:00000000b3fe6c7c order:3 compound_mapcount:0 subpages_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 anon flags: 0x17ffffc0010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) raw: 0017ffffc0010200 ffff888100042dc0 0000000000000000 dead000000000001 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888113747880: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888113747900: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb > ffff888113747980: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff888113747a00: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888113747a80: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ================================================================== Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52973
Debian:13linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52973
Debian:14linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-72.79UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1036.40UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1038.45UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1038.45.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1034.42UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1033.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1020.25UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1030.33UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1030.35UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1033.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-72.79UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1025.25UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1035.41UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1029.31UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before af79ea9a2443016f64d8fd8d72020cc874f0e066ac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before 6332f52f44b9776568bf3c0b714ddfb0bb175e78ac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before d0332cbf53dad06a22189cc341391237f4ea6d9fac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before 55515d7d8743b71b80bfe68e89eb9d92630626abac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before fc9e27f3ba083534b8bbf72ab0f5c810ffdc7d18ac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before 8506f16aae9daf354e3732bcfd447e2a97f023dfac751efa6a0d70f2c9daef5c7e3a92270f5c2dff – before 226fae124b2dac217ea5436060d623ff3385bc34
Linux Linux 2.6.38

Weakness: CWE-416 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References