CVE-2023-53167

tracing: Fix null pointer dereference in tracing_err_log_open()

State
Published
Severity
Not scored
Published
Sep 15, 2025
Updated
May 11, 2026
Reserved
Sep 15, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Fix null pointer dereference in tracing_err_log_open()

Fix an issue in function 'tracing_err_log_open'. The function doesn't call 'seq_open' if the file is opened only with write permissions, which results in 'file->private_data' being left as null. If we then use 'lseek' on that opened file, 'seq_lseek' dereferences 'file->private_data' in 'mutex_lock(&m->lock)', resulting in a kernel panic. Writing to this node requires root privileges, therefore this bug has very little security impact.

Tracefs node: /sys/kernel/tracing/error_log

Example Kernel panic:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000038 Call trace: mutex_lock+0x30/0x110 seq_lseek+0x34/0xb8 __arm64_sys_lseek+0x6c/0xb8 invoke_syscall+0x58/0x13c el0_svc_common+0xc4/0x10c do_el0_svc+0x24/0x98 el0_svc+0x24/0x88 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xe4 el0t_64_sync+0x1b4/0x1b8 Code: d503201f aa0803e0 aa1f03e1 aa0103e9 (c8e97d02) ---[ end trace 561d1b49c12cf8a5 ]--- Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops: Fatal exception

Scores

The record has no CVSS score.

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 93114cbc7cb169f6f26eeaed5286b91bb86b463bAffected
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 7060e5aac6dc195124c106f49106d653a416323aAffected
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 3b5d9b7b875968a8a8c99dac45cb85b705c44802Affected
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 938d5b7a75e18264887387ddf9169db6d8aeef98Affected
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 1e1c9aa9288a46c342f0f2c5c0b1c0876b9b0276Affected
  • 8a062902be725f647dc8da532b04d836546a369a to before 02b0095e2fbbc060560c1065f86a211d91e27b26Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.2Affected
  • before 5.2Not affected
  • 5.4.251 through 5.4.*Not affected
  • 5.10.188 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.121 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.40 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.4.5 through 6.4.*Not affected
  • 6.5 and laterNot affected

References

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