CVE-2023-52973 vc_screen: move load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_read() to avoid UAF
A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's vc_screen driver allows local attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-52973?
CVE-2023-52973 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vc_screen: move load of struct vc_data pointer in vcs_read() to avoid UAF
After a call to console_unlock() in vcs_read() the vc_data struct can be freed by vc_deallocate(). Because of that, the struct vc_data pointer load must be done at the top of while loop in vcs_read() to avoid a UAF when vcs_size() is called.
Syzkaller reported a UAF in vcs_size().
BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881137479a8 by task 4a005ed81e27e65/1537
CPU: 0 PID: 1537 Comm: 4a005ed81e27e65 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5 #1 Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.15.0-2.module Call Trace: <TASK> __asan_report_load4_noabort (mm/kasan/report_generic.c:350) vcs_size (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:215) vcs_read (drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:415) vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:468 fs/read_write.c:450) ... </TASK>
Allocated by task 1191: ... kmalloc_trace (mm/slab_common.c:1069) vc_allocate (./include/linux/slab.h:580 ./include/linux/slab.h:720 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1128 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1108) con_install (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:3383) tty_init_dev (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1301 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1413 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1390) tty_open (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2080 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2126) chrdev_open (fs/char_dev.c:415) do_dentry_open (fs/open.c:883) vfs_open (fs/open.c:1014) ...
Freed by task 1548: ... kfree (mm/slab_common.c:1021) vc_port_destruct (drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1094) tty_port_destructor (drivers/tty/tty_port.c:296) tty_port_put (drivers/tty/tty_port.c:312) vt_disallocate_all (drivers/tty/vt/vt_ioctl.c:662 (discriminator 2)) vt_ioctl (drivers/tty/vt/vt_ioctl.c:903) tty_ioctl (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2776) ...
The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888113747800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 424 bytes inside of 1024-byte region [ffff888113747800, ffff888113747c00)
The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:00000000b3fe6c7c refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x113740 head:00000000b3fe6c7c order:3 compound_mapcount:0 subpages_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 anon flags: 0x17ffffc0010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) raw: 0017ffffc0010200 ffff888100042dc0 0000000000000000 dead000000000001 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected
Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888113747880: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888113747900: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb > ffff888113747980: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff888113747a00: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888113747a80: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ================================================================== Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52973?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-52973?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2023-52973 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52973 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-52973, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52973, GHSA-34qc-h2vp-hq88, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52973.