CVE-2023-53599

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 6.5-6.5.2 - NULL Pointer Dereference in af_alg_alloc_areq

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: af_alg - Fix missing initialisation affecting gcm-aes-s390 Fix af_alg_alloc_areq() to initialise areq->first_rsgl.sgl.sgt.sgl to point to the scatterlist array in areq->first_rsgl.sgl.sgl. Without this, the gcm-aes-s390 driver will oops when it tries to do gcm_walk_start() on req->dst because req->dst is set to the value of areq->first_rsgl.sgl.sgl by _aead_recvmsg() calling aead_request_set_crypt(). The problem comes if an empty ciphertext is passed: the loop in af_alg_get_rsgl() just passes straight out and doesn't set areq->first_rsgl up. This isn't a problem on x86_64 using gcmaes_crypt_by_sg() because, as far as I can tell, that ignores req->dst and only uses req->src[*]. [*] Is this a bug in aesni-intel_glue.c? The s390x oops looks something like: Unable to handle kernel pointer dereference in virtual kernel address space Failing address: 0000000a00000000 TEID: 0000000a00000803 Fault in home space mode while using kernel ASCE. AS:00000000a43a0007 R3:0000000000000024 Oops: 003b ilc:2 [#1] SMP ... Call Trace: [<000003ff7fc3d47e>] gcm_walk_start+0x16/0x28 [aes_s390] [<00000000a2a342f2>] crypto_aead_decrypt+0x9a/0xb8 [<00000000a2a60888>] aead_recvmsg+0x478/0x698 [<00000000a2e519a0>] sock_recvmsg+0x70/0xb0 [<00000000a2e51a56>] sock_read_iter+0x76/0xa0 [<00000000a273e066>] vfs_read+0x26e/0x2a8 [<00000000a273e8c4>] ksys_read+0xbc/0x100 [<00000000a311d808>] __do_syscall+0x1d0/0x1f8 [<00000000a312ff30>] system_call+0x70/0x98 Last Breaking-Event-Address: [<000003ff7fc3e6b4>] gcm_aes_crypt+0x104/0xa68 [aes_s390]

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0012
EPSS Percentile 2.0%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-476
Status published
Products (7)
Linux/Linux < 6.5
Linux/Linux 6.5
Linux/Linux 6.5.3 - 6.5.*
Linux/Linux 6.6
Linux/Linux c1abe6f570aff4b6d396dc551e60570d2f50bd79 - 2c9d205040d7c0eaccc473917f9b0bb0a923e440
Linux/Linux c1abe6f570aff4b6d396dc551e60570d2f50bd79 - 6a4b8aa0a916b39a39175584c07222434fa6c6ef
linux/linux_kernel 6.5 - 6.5.3
Published Oct 04, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026