Local privilege escalation via incorrect PFN carry
Published Sep 15, 2025 · Updated Sep 15, 2025
Page-accounting corruption in Linux kernel 6.2 through 6.2.10 allows local users to escalate privileges through iommufd ioctls. In batch_clear_carry, npfns[0] is written before the PFN pointer is recalculated when batch->end is zero, so later unpinning targets the wrong pages. Access to /dev/iommu and an IOMMU-backed VFIO device is required; exploitation can corrupt kernel page metadata, disclose or overwrite kernel memory, or crash the host.
Summary
What happened
Page-accounting corruption in Linux kernel 6.2 through 6.2.10 allows local users to escalate privileges through iommufd ioctls. In batch_clear_carry, npfns[0] is written before the PFN pointer is recalculated when batch->end is zero, so later unpinning targets the wrong pages. Access to /dev/iommu and an IOMMU-backed VFIO device is required; exploitation can corrupt kernel page metadata, disclose or overwrite kernel memory, or crash the host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53236
- Published
- Sep 15, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 15, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- 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=6.2
- Affected versionversion=f394576eb11dbcd3a740fa41e577b97f0720d26e <13a0d1ae7ee6b438f5537711a8c60cba00554943
- Affected versionversion=f394576eb11dbcd3a740fa41e577b97f0720d26e <6ed5784526ddc0fb58b1798af36ec0c3139a8dca
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Your stack
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Your stack
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