# CVE-2023-53994: ionic: remove WARN_ON to prevent panic_on_warn

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic in the ionic driver if panic_on_warn is enabled, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53994, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53994, GHSA-xcjm-pf9x-jpg2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53994

## What is CVE-2023-53994?

CVE-2023-53994 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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:

ionic: remove WARN_ON to prevent panic_on_warn

Remove unnecessary early code development check and the WARN_ON
that it uses.  The irq alloc and free paths have long been
cleaned up and this check shouldn't have stuck around so long.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53994?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53994?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53994 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53994 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53994 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53994 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-2023-53994 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-2023-53994/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53994/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53994
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53994
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53994

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53994/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.