CVE-2023-53171

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 3.6-5.10.172 - Denial of Service via VFIO DMA Mapping Locked VM Underflow

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vfio/type1: prevent underflow of locked_vm via exec() When a vfio container is preserved across exec, the task does not change, but it gets a new mm with locked_vm=0, and loses the count from existing dma mappings. If the user later unmaps a dma mapping, locked_vm underflows to a large unsigned value, and a subsequent dma map request fails with ENOMEM in __account_locked_vm. To avoid underflow, grab and save the mm at the time a dma is mapped. Use that mm when adjusting locked_vm, rather than re-acquiring the saved task's mm, which may have changed. If the saved mm is dead, do nothing. locked_vm is incremented for existing mappings in a subsequent patch.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0014
EPSS Percentile 4.3%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

Status published
Products (17)
linux/Kernel 3.6.0 - 5.10.173linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.99linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.16linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.2.3linux
Linux/Linux < 3.6
Linux/Linux 3.6
Linux/Linux 5.10.173 - 5.10.*
Linux/Linux 5.15.99 - 5.15.*
Linux/Linux 6.1.16 - 6.1.*
Linux/Linux 6.2.3 - 6.2.*
... and 7 more
Published Sep 15, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026