Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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-2023-53235 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 6th 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-59849
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/tests: helpers: Avoid a driver uaf when using __drm_kunit_helper_alloc_drm_device() the driver may be dereferenced by device-managed resources up until the device is freed, which is typically later than the kunit-managed…
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resource code frees it. Fix this by simply make the driver device-managed as well. In short, the sequence leading to the UAF is as follows: INIT: Code allocates a struct device as a kunit-managed resource. Code allocates a drm driver as a kunit-managed resource. Code allocates a drm device as a device-managed resource. EXIT: Kunit resource cleanup frees the drm driver Kunit resource cleanup puts the struct device, which starts a device-managed resource cleanup device-managed cleanup calls drm_dev_put() drm_dev_put() dereferences the (now freed) drm driver -> Boom. Related KASAN message: [55272.551542] ================================================================== [55272.551551] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in drm_dev_put.part.0+0xd4/0xe0 [drm] [55272.551603] Read of size 8 at addr ffff888127502828 by task kunit_try_catch/10353 [55272.551612] CPU: 4 PID: 10353 Comm: kunit_try_catch Tainted: G U N 6.5.0-rc7+ #155 [55272.551620] Hardware name: ASUS System Product Name/PRIME B560M-A AC, BIOS 0403 01/26/2021 [55272.551626] Call Trace: [55272.551629] <TASK> [55272.551633] dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x90 [55272.551639] print_report+0xcf/0x630 [55272.551645] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x5f/0x70 [55272.551652] ? drm_dev_put.part.0+0xd4/0xe0 [drm] [55272.551694] kasan_report+0xd7/0x110 [55272.551699] ? drm_dev_put.part.0+0xd4/0xe0 [drm] [55272.551742] drm_dev_put.part.0+0xd4/0xe0 [drm] [55272.551783] devres_release_all+0x15d/0x1f0 [55272.551790] ? __pfx_devres_release_all+0x10/0x10 [55272.551797] device_unbind_cleanup+0x16/0x1a0 [55272.551802] device_release_driver_internal+0x3e5/0x540 [55272.551808] ? kobject_put+0x5d/0x4b0 [55272.551814] bus_remove_device+0x1f1/0x3f0 [55272.551819] device_del+0x342/0x910 [55272.551826] ? __pfx_device_del+0x10/0x10 [55272.551830] ? lock_release+0x339/0x5e0 [55272.551836] ? kunit_remove_resource+0x128/0x290 [kunit] [55272.551845] ? __pfx_lock_release+0x10/0x10 [55272.551851] platform_device_del.part.0+0x1f/0x1e0 [55272.551856] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x30/0x60 [55272.551863] kunit_remove_resource+0x195/0x290 [kunit] [55272.551871] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x30/0x60 [55272.551877] kunit_cleanup+0x78/0x120 [kunit] [55272.551885] ? __kthread_parkme+0xc1/0x1f0 [55272.551891] ? __pfx_kunit_try_run_case_cleanup+0x10/0x10 [kunit] [55272.551900] ? __pfx_kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x10/0x10 [kunit] [55272.551909] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [kunit] [55272.551919] kthread+0x2e7/0x3c0 [55272.551924] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [55272.551929] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [55272.551935] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [55272.551940] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 [55272.551948] </TASK> [55272.551953] Allocated by task 10351: [55272.551956] kasan_save_stack+0x1c/0x40 [55272.551962] kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 [55272.551966] __kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0x90 [55272.551970] __kmalloc+0x5e/0x160 [55272.551976] kunit_kmalloc_array+0x1c/0x50 [kunit] [55272.551984] drm_exec_test_init+0xfa/0x2c0 [drm_exec_test] [55272.551991] kunit_try_run_case+0xdd/0x250 [kunit] [55272.551999] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [kunit] [55272.552008] kthread+0x2e7/0x3c0 [55272.552012] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [55272.552017] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 [55272.552024] Freed by task 10353: [55272.552027] kasan_save_stack+0x1c/0x40 [55272.552032] kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 [55272.552036] kasan_save_free_info+0x27/0x40 [55272.552041] __kasan_slab_free+0x106/0x180 [55272.552046] slab_free_freelist_hook+0xb3/0x160 [55272.552051] __kmem_cache_free+0xb2/0x290 [55272.552056] kunit_remove_resource+0x195/0x290 [kunit] [55272.552064] kunit_cleanup+0x7 ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V1.4.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover use-after-free bugs through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.
Engineering principles can require memory-safe constructs or languages that structurally avoid introducing use-after-free.
Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.
Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.
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.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.
Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.
Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.
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.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
- V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-416