CVE-2023-53123

HIGH
Published May 2, 2025 Modified Nov 10, 2025 CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI: s390: Fix use-after-free of PCI resources with per-function hotplug On s390 PCI functions may be hotplugged individually even when they belong to a multi-function device. In particular on an SR-IOV device VFs may be removed and later re-added. In commit a50297cf8235 ("s390/pci: separate zbus creation from scanning") it was missed however that struct pci_bus and struct zpci_bus's resource list retained a reference to the PCI functions MMIO resources even though those resources are released and freed on hot-unplug. These stale resources may subsequently be claimed when the PCI function re-appears resulting in use-after-free. One idea of fixing this use-after-free in s390 specific code that was investigated was to simply keep resources around from the moment a PCI function first appeared until the whole virtual PCI bus created for a multi-function device disappears. The problem with this however is that due to the requirement of artificial MMIO addreesses (address cookies) extra logic is then needed to keep the address cookies compatible on re-plug. At the same time the MMIO resources semantically belong to the PCI function so tying their lifecycle to the function seems more logical. Instead a simpler approach is to remove the resources of an individually hot-unplugged PCI function from the PCI bus's resource list while keeping the resources of other PCI functions on the PCI bus untouched. This is done by introducing pci_bus_remove_resource() to remove an individual resource. Similarly the resource also needs to be removed from the struct zpci_bus's resource list. It turns out however, that there is really no need to add the MMIO resources to the struct zpci_bus's resource list at all and instead we can simply use the zpci_bar_struct's resource pointer directly.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.8
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-416 Use After Free

Affected Products

Vendor Product
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-53123? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI: s390: Fix use-after-free of PCI resources with per-function hotplug On s390 PCI functions may be hotplugged individually even when they belong to a multi-function device. In particular on an SR-IOV device VFs may be removed and later re-added. In commit a50297cf8235 ("s390/pci: separate zbus creation from scanning") it was missed however that struct pci_bus and struct zpci_bus's resource list retained a reference to the PCI functions MMIO resources even though those resources are released and freed on hot-unplug. These stale resources may subsequently be claimed when the PCI function re-appears resulting in use-after-free. One idea of fixing this use-after-free in s390 specific code that was investigated was to simply keep resources around from the moment a PCI function first appeared until the whole virtual PCI bus created for a multi-function device disappears. The problem with this however is that due to the requirement of artificial MMIO addreesses (address cookies) extra logic is then needed to keep the address cookies compatible on re-plug. At the same time the MMIO resources semantically belong to the PCI function so tying their lifecycle to the function seems more logical. Instead a simpler approach is to remove the resources of an individually hot-unplugged PCI function from the PCI bus's resource list while keeping the resources of other PCI functions on the PCI bus untouched. This is done by introducing pci_bus_remove_resource() to remove an individual resource. Similarly the resource also needs to be removed from the struct zpci_bus's resource list. It turns out however, that there is really no need to add the MMIO resources to the struct zpci_bus's resource list at all and instead we can simply use the zpci_bar_struct's resource pointer directly. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2023-53123? +
CVE-2023-53123 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching.
What products are affected by CVE-2023-53123? +
CVE-2023-53123 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2023-53123? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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