# CVE-2023-53256: firmware: arm_ffa: Fix FFA device names for logical partitions

> A bug in the Linux kernel's ARM FF-A driver prevents registering multiple logical partitions, causing a denial of service during initialization.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53256, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53256, GHSA-vg5j-xj2v-j47w, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53256

## What is CVE-2023-53256?

CVE-2023-53256 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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:

firmware: arm_ffa: Fix FFA device names for logical partitions

Each physical partition can provide multiple services each with UUID.
Each such service can be presented as logical partition with a unique
combination of VM ID and UUID. The number of distinct UUID in a system
will be less than or equal to the number of logical partitions.

However, currently it fails to register more than one logical partition
or service within a physical partition as the device name contains only
VM ID while both VM ID and UUID are maintained in the partition information.
The kernel complains with the below message:

  | sysfs: cannot create duplicate filename '/devices/arm-ffa-8001'
  | CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc7 #8
  | Hardware name: FVP Base RevC (DT)
  | Call trace:
  |  dump_backtrace+0xf8/0x118
  |  show_stack+0x18/0x24
  |  dump_stack_lvl+0x50/0x68
  |  dump_stack+0x18/0x24
  |  sysfs_create_dir_ns+0xe0/0x13c
  |  kobject_add_internal+0x220/0x3d4
  |  kobject_add+0x94/0x100
  |  device_add+0x144/0x5d8
  |  device_register+0x20/0x30
  |  ffa_device_register+0x88/0xd8
  |  ffa_setup_partitions+0x108/0x1b8
  |  ffa_init+0x2ec/0x3a4
  |  do_one_initcall+0xcc/0x240
  |  do_initcall_level+0x8c/0xac
  |  do_initcalls+0x54/0x94
  |  do_basic_setup+0x1c/0x28
  |  kernel_init_freeable+0x100/0x16c
  |  kernel_init+0x20/0x1a0
  |  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
  | kobject_add_internal failed for arm-ffa-8001 with -EEXIST, don't try to
  | register things with the same name in the same directory.
  | arm_ffa arm-ffa: unable to register device arm-ffa-8001 err=-17
  | ARM FF-A: ffa_setup_partitions: failed to register partition ID 0x8001

By virtue of being random enough to avoid collisions when generated in a
distributed system, there is no way to compress UUID keys to the number
of bits required to identify each. We can eliminate '-' in the name but
it is not worth eliminating 4 bytes and add unnecessary logic for doing
that. Also v1.0 doesn't provide the UUID of the partitions which makes
it hard to use the same for the device name.

So to keep it simple, let us alloc an ID using ida_alloc() and append the
same to "arm-ffa" to make up a unique device name. Also stash the id value
in ffa_dev to help freeing the ID later when the device is destroyed.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53256?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53256?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53256 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53256 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53256 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53256 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53256 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53256/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53256/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53256
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53256
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53256

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53256/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.