# CVE-2023-54291: vduse: fix NULL pointer dereference

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by deleting a vduse device, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 30 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54291, GHSA-8w34-jjgr-cq87, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54291

## What is CVE-2023-54291?

CVE-2023-54291 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:

vduse: fix NULL pointer dereference

vduse_vdpa_set_vq_affinity callback can be called
with NULL value as cpu_mask when deleting the vduse
device.

This patch resets virtqueue's IRQ affinity mask value
to set all CPUs instead of dereferencing NULL cpu_mask.

[ 4760.952149] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
[ 4760.959110] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
[ 4760.964247] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
[ 4760.969385] PGD 0 P4D 0
[ 4760.971927] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
[ 4760.976112] CPU: 13 PID: 2346 Comm: vdpa Not tainted 6.4.0-rc6+ #4
[ 4760.982291] Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R640/0W23H8, BIOS 2.8.1 06/26/2020
[ 4760.989769] RIP: 0010:memcpy_orig+0xc5/0x130
[ 4760.994049] Code: 16 f8 4c 89 07 4c 89 4f 08 4c 89 54 17 f0 4c 89 5c 17 f8 c3 cc cc cc cc 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 90 83 fa 08 72 1b <4c> 8b 06 4c 8b 4c 16 f8 4c 89 07 4c 89 4c 17 f8 c3 cc cc cc cc 66
[ 4761.012793] RSP: 0018:ffffb1d565abb830 EFLAGS: 00010246
[ 4761.018020] RAX: ffff9f4bf6b27898 RBX: ffff9f4be23969c0 RCX: ffff9f4bcadf6400
[ 4761.025152] RDX: 0000000000000008 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff9f4bf6b27898
[ 4761.032286] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000008 R09: 0000000000000000
[ 4761.039416] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000600 R12: 0000000000000000
[ 4761.046549] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000080 R15: ffffb1d565abbb10
[ 4761.053680] FS:  00007f64c2ec2740(0000) GS:ffff9f635f980000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 4761.061765] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 4761.067513] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000001875270006 CR4: 00000000007706e0
[ 4761.074645] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[ 4761.081775] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[ 4761.088909] PKRU: 55555554
[ 4761.091620] Call Trace:
[ 4761.094074]  <TASK>
[ 4761.096180]  ? __die+0x1f/0x70
[ 4761.099238]  ? page_fault_oops+0x171/0x4f0
[ 4761.103340]  ? exc_page_fault+0x7b/0x180
[ 4761.107265]  ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30
[ 4761.111460]  ? memcpy_orig+0xc5/0x130
[ 4761.115126]  vduse_vdpa_set_vq_affinity+0x3e/0x50 [vduse]
[ 4761.120533]  virtnet_clean_affinity.part.0+0x3d/0x90 [virtio_net]
[ 4761.126635]  remove_vq_common+0x1a4/0x250 [virtio_net]
[ 4761.131781]  virtnet_remove+0x5d/0x70 [virtio_net]
[ 4761.136580]  virtio_dev_remove+0x3a/0x90
[ 4761.140509]  device_release_driver_internal+0x19b/0x200
[ 4761.145742]  bus_remove_device+0xc2/0x130
[ 4761.149755]  device_del+0x158/0x3e0
[ 4761.153245]  ? kernfs_find_ns+0x35/0xc0
[ 4761.157086]  device_unregister+0x13/0x60
[ 4761.161010]  unregister_virtio_device+0x11/0x20
[ 4761.165543]  device_release_driver_internal+0x19b/0x200
[ 4761.170770]  bus_remove_device+0xc2/0x130
[ 4761.174782]  device_del+0x158/0x3e0
[ 4761.178276]  ? __pfx_vdpa_name_match+0x10/0x10 [vdpa]
[ 4761.183336]  device_unregister+0x13/0x60
[ 4761.187260]  vdpa_nl_cmd_dev_del_set_doit+0x63/0xe0 [vdpa]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54291?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54291?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54291 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54291 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54291 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54291 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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-2023-54291 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-2023-54291/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54291/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54291
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54291
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54291

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54291/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.