Security Resilience

CVE-2023-53577

Linux Kernel 4.15 – 5.15.126

Published
04 October 2025
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0015 4th percentile
Risk Priority 54 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-2023-53577 is a high-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked at the 4th 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.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, cpumap: Make sure kthread is running before map update returns The following warning was reported when running stress-mode enabled xdp_redirect_cpu with some RT threads: ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING:…

more

CPU: 4 PID: 65 at kernel/bpf/cpumap.c:135 CPU: 4 PID: 65 Comm: kworker/4:1 Not tainted 6.5.0-rc2+ #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) Workqueue: events cpu_map_kthread_stop RIP: 0010:put_cpu_map_entry+0xda/0x220 ...... Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0x65/0x70 ? __warn+0xa5/0x240 ...... ? put_cpu_map_entry+0xda/0x220 cpu_map_kthread_stop+0x41/0x60 process_one_work+0x6b0/0xb80 worker_thread+0x96/0x720 kthread+0x1a5/0x1f0 ret_from_fork+0x3a/0x70 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 </TASK> The root cause is the same as commit 436901649731 ("bpf: cpumap: Fix memory leak in cpu_map_update_elem"). The kthread is stopped prematurely by kthread_stop() in cpu_map_kthread_stop(), and kthread() doesn't call cpu_map_kthread_run() at all but XDP program has already queued some frames or skbs into ptr_ring. So when __cpu_map_ring_cleanup() checks the ptr_ring, it will find it was not emptied and report a warning. An alternative fix is to use __cpu_map_ring_cleanup() to drop these pending frames or skbs when kthread_stop() returns -EINTR, but it may confuse the user, because these frames or skbs have been handled correctly by XDP program. So instead of dropping these frames or skbs, just make sure the per-cpu kthread is running before __cpu_map_entry_alloc() returns. After apply the fix, the error handle for kthread_stop() will be unnecessary because it will always return 0, so just remove it.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
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.
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).
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-43373Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-71151Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53017Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53128Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-23137Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-46005Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53611Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53435Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53197Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-35994Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.5 · 4.15 — 5.15.126 · 5.16 — 6.1.45 · 6.2 — 6.4.10

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.

Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.

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.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.

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.

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References