CVE-2023-54027 iio: core: Prevent invalid memory access when there is no parent
A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by creating a specific IIO dummy device via configfs, leading to a denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-54027?
CVE-2023-54027 is a 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:
iio: core: Prevent invalid memory access when there is no parent
Commit 813665564b3d ("iio: core: Convert to use firmware node handle instead of OF node") switched the kind of nodes to use for label retrieval in device registration. Probably an unwanted change in that commit was that if the device has no parent then NULL pointer is accessed. This is what happens in the stock IIO dummy driver when a new entry is created in configfs:
# mkdir /sys/kernel/config/iio/devices/dummy/foo BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: ... ... Call Trace: __iio_device_register iio_dummy_probe
Since there seems to be no reason to make a parent device of an IIO dummy device mandatory, let’s prevent the invalid memory access in __iio_device_register when the parent device is NULL. With this change, the IIO dummy driver works fine with configfs.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54027?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54027?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54027 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54027 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54027, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54027, GHSA-jwx3-9wmp-w467, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54027.