Kernel panic via ionic interrupt-link warning
Published Dec 24, 2025 · Updated Dec 24, 2025
Denial of service in the ionic Ethernet driver in Linux 5.4 through 6.4.4 allows local users to panic kernels configured with panic_on_warn. ionic_link_qcq_interrupts unnecessarily invokes WARN_ON when a queue already carries IONIC_QCQ_F_INTR before clearing the stale interrupt state. Exploitation requires the ionic driver, the interrupt-linking condition, and panic_on_warn=1; the bounded consequence is a kernel panic and service interruption.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the ionic Ethernet driver in Linux 5.4 through 6.4.4 allows local users to panic kernels configured with panic_on_warn. ionic_link_qcq_interrupts unnecessarily invokes WARN_ON when a queue already carries IONIC_QCQ_F_INTR before clearing the stale interrupt state. Exploitation requires the ionic driver, the interrupt-linking condition, and panic_on_warn=1; the bounded consequence is a kernel panic and service interruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53994
- Published
- Dec 24, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 24, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 24, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 24, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.4
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <1417dd787a5e55b410a00a28231b0dcb19172457
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <4c7276a6daf7e13a6dd30b0347b3f2c7df4d40bb
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <abfb2a58a5377ebab717d4362d6180f901b6e5c1
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <daeaad114cb163ec51bcf14326cb7fe37d368459
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <dc470466753ad0dd3a8c48aaefa05a992c119b9c
- Affected versionversion=77ceb68e29ccd25d923b6af59e74ecaf736cc4b7 <f8cc4fd99a325505e15c3da95d6de266efd3d9b5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo