# CVE-2023-53768: regmap-irq: Fix out-of-bounds access when allocating config buffers

> A logic error in the Linux kernel's regmap-irq driver causes out-of-bounds memory writes, leading to system crashes and denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 8 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53768, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53768, GHSA-x59p-mm6w-2vq3, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53768

## What is CVE-2023-53768?

CVE-2023-53768 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 8 Dec 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:

regmap-irq: Fix out-of-bounds access when allocating config buffers

When allocating the 2D array for handling IRQ type registers in
regmap_add_irq_chip_fwnode(), the intent is to allocate a matrix
with num_config_bases rows and num_config_regs columns.

This is currently handled by allocating a buffer to hold a pointer for
each row (i.e. num_config_bases). After that, the logic attempts to
allocate the memory required to hold the register configuration for
each row. However, instead of doing this allocation for each row
(i.e. num_config_bases allocations), the logic erroneously does this
allocation num_config_regs number of times.

This scenario can lead to out-of-bounds accesses when num_config_regs
is greater than num_config_bases. Fix this by updating the terminating
condition of the loop that allocates the memory for holding the register
configuration to allocate memory only for each row in the matrix.

Amit Pundir reported a crash that was occurring on his db845c device
due to memory corruption (see "Closes" tag for Amit's report). The KASAN
report below helped narrow it down to this issue:

[   14.033877][    T1] ==================================================================
[   14.042507][    T1] BUG: KASAN: invalid-access in regmap_add_irq_chip_fwnode+0x594/0x1364
[   14.050796][    T1] Write of size 8 at addr 06ffff8081021850 by task init/1

[   14.242004][    T1] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffffff8081021850
[   14.242004][    T1]  which belongs to the cache kmalloc-8 of size 8
[   14.255669][    T1] The buggy address is located 0 bytes inside of
[   14.255669][    T1]  8-byte region [ffffff8081021850, ffffff8081021858)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53768?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53768?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53768 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53768 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53768 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53768 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 8 Dec 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-2023-53768 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53768/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53768/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53768
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53768
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53768

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53768/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.