Local privilege escalation via undersized SVE state buffer
Published Sep 15, 2025 · Updated Sep 15, 2025
Memory corruption in Linux 6.1.42 and 6.4.7 allows local users to overwrite kernel heap memory through arm64 SME or SVE vector-length changes. The arm64 fpsimd vector-length setter reallocates SVE state before recording the requested new length, so it sizes the buffer with the old value and later writes larger register state beyond the allocation. Any unprivileged local user on hardware with SVE or SME support can trigger the overflow through prctl or same-UID ptrace, leading to kernel memory disclosure, privilege escalation, or a kernel panic.
Summary
What happened
Memory corruption in Linux 6.1.42 and 6.4.7 allows local users to overwrite kernel heap memory through arm64 SME or SVE vector-length changes. The arm64 fpsimd vector-length setter reallocates SVE state before recording the requested new length, so it sizes the buffer with the old value and later writes larger register state beyond the allocation. Any unprivileged local user on hardware with SVE or SME support can trigger the overflow through prctl or same-UID ptrace, leading to kernel memory disclosure, privilege escalation, or a kernel panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53184
- Published
- Sep 15, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 15, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-787, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 15, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 15, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=292f0453b0d021bb1d3f64648bfdfca093512214 <807ada0e4aa3c9090c66009a99fa530c462012c9
- Affected versionversion=6.1.42 <6.1.43
- Affected versionversion=6.4.7 <6.4.8
- Affected versionversion=aa5cf8bd1318b6e7d500668b318c07a71cde783b <356e711640aea6ed145da9407499388b45264cb4
- Affected versionversion=d4d5be94a87872421ea2569044092535aff0b886 <05d881b85b48c7ac6a7c92ce00aa916c4a84d052
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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