# CVE-2023-53401: mm: kmem: fix a NULL pointer dereference in obj_stock_flush_required()

> A race condition in the Linux kernel memory management subsystem can lead to a NULL pointer dereference, causing a system crash.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** 18 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-72275, BELL-CVE-2023-53401, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53401, GHSA-67c3-x939-573c, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53401, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53401, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53401

## What is CVE-2023-53401?

CVE-2023-53401 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

mm: kmem: fix a NULL pointer dereference in obj_stock_flush_required()

KCSAN found an issue in obj_stock_flush_required():
stock->cached_objcg can be reset between the check and dereference:

==================================================================
BUG: KCSAN: data-race in drain_all_stock / drain_obj_stock

write to 0xffff888237c2a2f8 of 8 bytes by task 19625 on cpu 0:
 drain_obj_stock+0x408/0x4e0 mm/memcontrol.c:3306
 refill_obj_stock+0x9c/0x1e0 mm/memcontrol.c:3340
 obj_cgroup_uncharge+0xe/0x10 mm/memcontrol.c:3408
 memcg_slab_free_hook mm/slab.h:587 [inline]
 __cache_free mm/slab.c:3373 [inline]
 __do_kmem_cache_free mm/slab.c:3577 [inline]
 kmem_cache_free+0x105/0x280 mm/slab.c:3602
 __d_free fs/dcache.c:298 [inline]
 dentry_free fs/dcache.c:375 [inline]
 __dentry_kill+0x422/0x4a0 fs/dcache.c:621
 dentry_kill+0x8d/0x1e0
 dput+0x118/0x1f0 fs/dcache.c:913
 __fput+0x3bf/0x570 fs/file_table.c:329
 ____fput+0x15/0x20 fs/file_table.c:349
 task_work_run+0x123/0x160 kernel/task_work.c:179
 resume_user_mode_work include/linux/resume_user_mode.h:49 [inline]
 exit_to_user_mode_loop+0xcf/0xe0 kernel/entry/common.c:171
 exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x6a/0xa0 kernel/entry/common.c:203
 __syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work kernel/entry/common.c:285 [inline]
 syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x26/0x140 kernel/entry/common.c:296
 do_syscall_64+0x4d/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:86
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

read to 0xffff888237c2a2f8 of 8 bytes by task 19632 on cpu 1:
 obj_stock_flush_required mm/memcontrol.c:3319 [inline]
 drain_all_stock+0x174/0x2a0 mm/memcontrol.c:2361
 try_charge_memcg+0x6d0/0xd10 mm/memcontrol.c:2703
 try_charge mm/memcontrol.c:2837 [inline]
 mem_cgroup_charge_skmem+0x51/0x140 mm/memcontrol.c:7290
 sock_reserve_memory+0xb1/0x390 net/core/sock.c:1025
 sk_setsockopt+0x800/0x1e70 net/core/sock.c:1525
 udp_lib_setsockopt+0x99/0x6c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:2692
 udp_setsockopt+0x73/0xa0 net/ipv4/udp.c:2817
 sock_common_setsockopt+0x61/0x70 net/core/sock.c:3668
 __sys_setsockopt+0x1c3/0x230 net/socket.c:2271
 __do_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2282 [inline]
 __se_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2279 [inline]
 __x64_sys_setsockopt+0x66/0x80 net/socket.c:2279
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

value changed: 0xffff8881382d52c0 -> 0xffff888138893740

Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on:
CPU: 1 PID: 19632 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc2-syzkaller-00387-g534293368afa #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 03/02/2023

Fix it by using READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() for all accesses to
stock->cached_objcg.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53401?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53401?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53401 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53401 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-2023-53401 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53401 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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-2023-53401 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-2023-53401/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53401/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53401
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53401
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53401

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53401/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.