Local kernel crash via raced OverlayFS inode lookup
Published Sep 15, 2025 · Updated Sep 15, 2025
Null pointer dereference in Linux kernel OverlayFS allows local users to crash an affected kernel during concurrent path lookup. A raced cache drop can detach the upper dentry after ovl_i_path_real obtains it, so d_inode returns NULL and ovl_permission passes that value to inode_permission. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, an OverlayFS mount, and concurrent path-lookup and cache-drop activity; the demonstrated consequence is a kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
Null pointer dereference in Linux kernel OverlayFS allows local users to crash an affected kernel during concurrent path lookup. A raced cache drop can detach the upper dentry after ovl_i_path_real obtains it, so d_inode returns NULL and ovl_permission passes that value to inode_permission. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, an OverlayFS mount, and concurrent path-lookup and cache-drop activity; the demonstrated consequence is a kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53260
- Published
- Sep 15, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 15, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- 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?
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- Affected versionversion=4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c <1a73f5b8f079fd42a544c1600beface50c63af7c
- Affected versionversion=4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c <53dd2ca2c02fdcfe3aad2345091d371063f97d17
- Affected versionversion=4b7791b2e95805eaa9568761741d33cf929c930c <69f9ae7edf9ec0ff500429101923347fcba5c8c4
- Affected versionversion=5.19
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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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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