Security Resilience

CVE-2023-53586

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 4.11 – 5.10.180

Memory Safety
Published
04 October 2025
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0045 37th percentile
Risk Priority 64 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-2023-53586 is a high-severity Double Free (CWE-415) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked at the 37th 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: scsi: target: Fix multiple LUN_RESET handling This fixes a bug where an initiator thinks a LUN_RESET has cleaned up running commands when it hasn't. The bug was added in commit…

more

51ec502a3266 ("target: Delete tmr from list before processing"). The problem occurs when: 1. We have N I/O cmds running in the target layer spread over 2 sessions. 2. The initiator sends a LUN_RESET for each session. 3. session1's LUN_RESET loops over all the running commands from both sessions and moves them to its local drain_task_list. 4. session2's LUN_RESET does not see the LUN_RESET from session1 because the commit above has it remove itself. session2 also does not see any commands since the other reset moved them off the state lists. 5. sessions2's LUN_RESET will then complete with a successful response. 6. sessions2's inititor believes the running commands on its session are now cleaned up due to the successful response and cleans up the running commands from its side. It then restarts them. 7. The commands do eventually complete on the backend and the target starts to return aborted task statuses for them. The initiator will either throw a invalid ITT error or might accidentally lookup a new task if the ITT has been reallocated already. Fix the bug by reverting the patch, and serialize the execution of LUN_RESETs and Preempt and Aborts. Also prevent us from waiting on LUN_RESETs in core_tmr_drain_tmr_list, because it turns out the original patch fixed a bug that was not mentioned. For LUN_RESET1 core_tmr_drain_tmr_list can see a second LUN_RESET and wait on it. Then the second reset will run core_tmr_drain_tmr_list and see the first reset and wait on it resulting in a deadlock.

CWE(s)
CWE-415

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
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 →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
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 →
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
4.11 — 5.10.180 · 5.11 — 5.15.111 · 5.16 — 6.1.28

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation explicitly includes dynamic analysis and fuzzing that locate double-free defects before release.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles can require memory-safe allocation patterns or language features that structurally eliminate double-free opportunities.

SI-2 Flaw Remediation partial match

Flaw remediation processes require identification and correction of memory-management defects such as double free once discovered.

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 prevent double-free errors via static analysis, safe memory APIs, and testing.

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.5.32 Intellectual property rights partial match
removes

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-248590 OL 8 must clear the page allocator to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-415

References