Security Resilience

CVE-2023-53450

Linux Kernel 2.6.25 – 4.14.315

Published
01 October 2025
Modified
23 January 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0016 5th percentile
Risk Priority 41 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-53450 is a medium-severity Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 5th 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

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: remove a BUG_ON in ext4_mb_release_group_pa() If a malicious fuzzer overwrites the ext4 superblock while it is mounted such that the s_first_data_block is set to a very large number, the…

more

calculation of the block group can underflow, and trigger a BUG_ON check. Change this to be an ext4_warning so that we don't crash the kernel.

CWE(s)
CWE-617

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-31415Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-39768Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53323Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-52954Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-39803Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53584Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53247Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-53292Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-39509Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-23356Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.4 · 2.6.25 — 4.14.315 · 4.15 — 4.19.283 · 4.20 — 5.4.243

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation finds reachable assertions during development.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles discourage use of assertions for handling untrusted input.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Validating untrusted inputs structurally prevents attacker data from reaching and triggering assertions.

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.

DE.CM-09 partial match
blocks

Runtime monitoring of software can detect assertion-triggered crashes as adverse events.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record reachable-assertion flaws before deployment.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent unsafe assertions from being coded in reachable paths.

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References