CVE-2023-53647

Guest boot crash via ACPI root dereference

Published Oct 7, 2025 · Updated Oct 7, 2025

NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel VMBus driver allows attackers to crash a guest at boot when its host omits Hyper-V MMIO ranges. The driver walks past the VMBus ACPI device's ancestors and passes the all-ones ACPI root handle to resource-walking code, which dereferences it as a pointer. Exposure requires a VMBus host without those ranges; KVM/QEMU guests use the Hyper-V paravirtual interface only when the KVM interface is missing or disabled.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.20%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel VMBus driver allows attackers to crash a guest at boot when its host omits Hyper-V MMIO ranges. The driver walks past the VMBus ACPI device's ancestors and passes the all-ones ACPI root handle to resource-walking code, which dereferences it as a pointer. Exposure requires a VMBus host without those ranges; KVM/QEMU guests use the Hyper-V paravirtual interface only when the KVM interface is missing or disabled.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-53647
Published
Oct 7, 2025
Updated
Oct 7, 2025
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
CWE-476, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 7, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Oct 7, 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.

  1. Affected versionversion=4.3
  2. Affected versionversion=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <64f09d45e94547fbf219f36d1d02ac42742c028c
  3. Affected versionversion=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <78e04bbff849b51b56f5925b1945db2c6e128b61
  4. Affected versionversion=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <96db43aced395844a7abc9a0a5cc702513e3534a
  5. Affected versionversion=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <9fc162c59edc841032a3553eb2334320abab0784

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=4.3; version=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <64f09d45e94547fbf219f36d1d02ac42742c028c; version=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <78e04bbff849b51b56f5925b1945db2c6e128b61; version=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <96db43aced395844a7abc9a0a5cc702513e3534a; version=7f163a6fd957a85f7f66a129db1ad243a44399ee <9fc162c59edc841032a3553eb2334320abab0784

Published CVSS scores

5.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

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.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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