# CVE-2023-53550: cpufreq: amd-pstate: fix global sysfs attribute type

> A type mismatch in AMD P-State sysfs attributes causes Control Flow Integrity failures, leading to kernel crashes when attributes are read.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 4 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53550, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53550, GHSA-m48w-fr7p-r6p2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53550

## What is CVE-2023-53550?

CVE-2023-53550 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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:

cpufreq: amd-pstate: fix global sysfs attribute type

In commit 3666062b87ec ("cpufreq: amd-pstate: move to use bus_get_dev_root()")
the "amd_pstate" attributes where moved from a dedicated kobject to the
cpu root kobject.

While the dedicated kobject expects to contain kobj_attributes the root
kobject needs device_attributes.

As the changed arguments are not used by the callbacks it works most of
the time.
However CFI will detect this issue:

[ 4947.849350] CFI failure at dev_attr_show+0x24/0x60 (target: show_status+0x0/0x70; expected type: 0x8651b1de)
...
[ 4947.849409] Call Trace:
[ 4947.849410]  <TASK>
[ 4947.849411]  ? __warn+0xcf/0x1c0
[ 4947.849414]  ? dev_attr_show+0x24/0x60
[ 4947.849415]  ? report_cfi_failure+0x4e/0x60
[ 4947.849417]  ? handle_cfi_failure+0x14c/0x1d0
[ 4947.849419]  ? __cfi_show_status+0x10/0x10
[ 4947.849420]  ? handle_bug+0x4f/0x90
[ 4947.849421]  ? exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x60
[ 4947.849422]  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
[ 4947.849424]  ? __cfi_show_status+0x10/0x10
[ 4947.849425]  ? dev_attr_show+0x24/0x60
[ 4947.849426]  sysfs_kf_seq_show+0xa6/0x110
[ 4947.849433]  seq_read_iter+0x16c/0x4b0
[ 4947.849436]  vfs_read+0x272/0x2d0
[ 4947.849438]  ksys_read+0x72/0xe0
[ 4947.849439]  do_syscall_64+0x76/0xb0
[ 4947.849440]  ? do_user_addr_fault+0x252/0x650
[ 4947.849442]  ? exc_page_fault+0x7a/0x1b0
[ 4947.849443]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53550?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53550?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53550 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53550 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-2023-53550 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53550 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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-2023-53550 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-2023-53550/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53550/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53550
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53550
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53550

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53550/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.