Vulnerability · Published Dec 8, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53756KVM: VMX: Fix crash due to uninitialized current_vmcs

Unrated

In plain English

A security flaw 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 0.2% (higher than 9% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS )–Not rated
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 91.3% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: VMX: Fix crash due to uninitialized current_vmcs KVM enables 'Enlightened VMCS' and 'Enlightened MSR Bitmap' when running as a nested hypervisor on top of Hyper-V. When MSR bitmap is updated, evmcs_touch_msr_bitmap function uses current_vmcs per-cpu variable to mark that the msr bitmap was changed. vmx_vcpu_create() modifies the msr bitmap via vmx_disable_intercept_for_msr -> vmx_msr_bitmap_l01_changed which in the end calls this function. The function checks for current_vmcs if it is null but the check is insufficient because current_vmcs is not initialized. Because of this, the code might incorrectly write to the structure pointed by current_vmcs value left by another task. Preemption is not disabled, the current task can be preempted and moved to another CPU while current_vmcs is accessed multiple times from evmcs_touch_msr_bitmap() which leads to crash. The manipulation of MSR bitmaps by callers happens only for vmcs01 so the solution is to use vmx->vmcs01.vmcs instead of current_vmcs. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000338 PGD 4e1775067 P4D 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI ... RIP: 0010:vmx_msr_bitmap_l01_changed+0x39/0x50 [kvm_intel] ... Call Trace: vmx_disable_intercept_for_msr+0x36/0x260 [kvm_intel] vmx_vcpu_create+0xe6/0x540 [kvm_intel] kvm_arch_vcpu_create+0x1d1/0x2e0 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl_create_vcpu+0x178/0x430 [kvm] kvm_vm_ioctl+0x53f/0x790 [kvm] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x8a/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x5c/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.20-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53756
Debian:13linux6.1.20-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53756
Debian:14linux6.1.20-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-79.86UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1042.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1045.52UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1045.52.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1039.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1025.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1037.42UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-79.88UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1030.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra5.15.0-1016.16UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igx5.15.0-1002.2UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1040.46UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmp5.15.0-1025.29UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53756

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ceef7d10dfb6284d512c499292e6daa35ea83f90 – before 6baebcecf09acd19e2bab1c2911dcdba5d48a1dcceef7d10dfb6284d512c499292e6daa35ea83f90 – before 6e7bc50f97c9855da83f1478f722590defd45ff2ceef7d10dfb6284d512c499292e6daa35ea83f90 – before b2de2b4d4e007f9add46ea8dc06f781835e3ea9fceef7d10dfb6284d512c499292e6daa35ea83f90 – before 3ba95cc671c025d0d2a1c7d5e2930f0ff0980cf4ceef7d10dfb6284d512c499292e6daa35ea83f90 – before 93827a0a36396f2fd6368a54a020f420c8916e9b
Linux Linux 4.18

References