CVE-2023-53818

Vulnerability

Overview

CVE-2023-53818 is a reference count leak vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Linux kernel's ARM Zynq early SLCR initialization function (zynq_early_slcr_init). The function calls of_find_compatible_node() which returns a device node pointer with its reference count incremented. On error paths, the code fails to release this reference via of_node_put_node(), causing a leak.

Exploitation and

Impact

An attacker with local access could potentially trigger the error path repeatedly, causing the kernel to exhaust memory or other resources tied to device node references. This could lead to denial of service (DoS) conditions. No authentication or special privileges are required beyond local access to the system.

Mitigation

The fix was applied in multiple stable kernel commits [1][2][3][4]. Users should update to a patched kernel version. No workaround is available other than applying the patch.