Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-53114 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 10th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-13133
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i40e: Fix kernel crash during reboot when adapter is in recovery mode If the driver detects during probe that firmware is in recovery mode then i40e_init_recovery_mode() is called and the…
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rest of probe function is skipped including pci_set_drvdata(). Subsequent i40e_shutdown() called during shutdown/reboot dereferences NULL pointer as pci_get_drvdata() returns NULL. To fix call pci_set_drvdata() also during entering to recovery mode. Reproducer: 1) Lets have i40e NIC with firmware in recovery mode 2) Run reboot Result: [ 139.084698] i40e: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection XL710 Network Driver [ 139.090959] i40e: Copyright (c) 2013 - 2019 Intel Corporation. [ 139.108438] i40e 0000:02:00.0: Firmware recovery mode detected. Limiting functionality. [ 139.116439] i40e 0000:02:00.0: Refer to the Intel(R) Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide for details on firmware recovery mode. [ 139.129499] i40e 0000:02:00.0: fw 8.3.64775 api 1.13 nvm 8.30 0x8000b78d 1.3106.0 [8086:1583] [15d9:084a] [ 139.215932] i40e 0000:02:00.0 enp2s0f0: renamed from eth0 [ 139.223292] i40e 0000:02:00.1: Firmware recovery mode detected. Limiting functionality. [ 139.231292] i40e 0000:02:00.1: Refer to the Intel(R) Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide for details on firmware recovery mode. [ 139.244406] i40e 0000:02:00.1: fw 8.3.64775 api 1.13 nvm 8.30 0x8000b78d 1.3106.0 [8086:1583] [15d9:084a] [ 139.329209] i40e 0000:02:00.1 enp2s0f1: renamed from eth0 ... [ 156.311376] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000006c2 [ 156.318330] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 156.323546] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 156.328679] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 156.331210] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 156.335567] CPU: 26 PID: 15119 Comm: reboot Tainted: G E 6.2.0+ #1 [ 156.343126] Hardware name: Abacus electric, s.r.o. - servis@abacus.cz Super Server/H12SSW-iN, BIOS 2.4 04/13/2022 [ 156.353369] RIP: 0010:i40e_shutdown+0x15/0x130 [i40e] [ 156.358430] Code: c1 fc ff ff 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 fd 53 48 8b 9f 48 01 00 00 <f0> 80 8b c2 06 00 00 04 f0 80 8b c0 06 00 00 08 48 8d bb 08 08 00 [ 156.377168] RSP: 0018:ffffb223c8447d90 EFLAGS: 00010282 [ 156.382384] RAX: ffffffffc073ee70 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000001 [ 156.389510] RDX: 0000000080000001 RSI: 0000000000000246 RDI: ffff95db49988000 [ 156.396634] RBP: ffff95db49988000 R08: ffffffffffffffff R09: ffffffff8bd17d40 [ 156.403759] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: ffffffff8a5e3d28 R12: ffff95db49988000 [ 156.410882] R13: ffffffff89a6fe17 R14: ffff95db49988150 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 156.418007] FS: 00007fe7c0cc3980(0000) GS:ffff95ea8ee80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 156.426083] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 156.431819] CR2: 00000000000006c2 CR3: 00000003092fc005 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [ 156.438944] PKRU: 55555554 [ 156.441647] Call Trace: [ 156.444096] <TASK> [ 156.446199] pci_device_shutdown+0x38/0x60 [ 156.450297] device_shutdown+0x163/0x210 [ 156.454215] kernel_restart+0x12/0x70 [ 156.457872] __do_sys_reboot+0x1ab/0x230 [ 156.461789] ? vfs_writev+0xa6/0x1a0 [ 156.465362] ? __pfx_file_free_rcu+0x10/0x10 [ 156.469635] ? __call_rcu_common.constprop.85+0x109/0x5a0 [ 156.475034] do_syscall_64+0x3e/0x90 [ 156.478611] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [ 156.483658] RIP: 0033:0x7fe7bff37ab7
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.
Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.
Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.