NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-syms package, versions <6.4.0-150700.53.22.1
Threat Intelligence
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Start learning- Snyk IDSNYK-SLES157-KERNELSYMS-13920065
- published13 Nov 2025
- disclosed11 Nov 2025
Introduced: 11 Nov 2025
CVE-2023-53260 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade SLES:15.7 kernel-syms to version 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1 or higher.
NVD Description
Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-syms package and not the kernel-syms package as distributed by SLES.
See How to fix? for SLES:15.7 relevant fixed versions and status.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ovl: fix null pointer dereference in ovl_permission()
Following process: P1 P2 path_lookupat link_path_walk inode_permission ovl_permission ovl_i_path_real(inode, &realpath) path->dentry = ovl_i_dentry_upper(inode) drop_cache __dentry_kill(ovl_dentry) iput(ovl_inode) ovl_destroy_inode(ovl_inode) dput(oi->__upperdentry) dentry_kill(upperdentry) dentry_unlink_inode upperdentry->d_inode = NULL realinode = d_inode(realpath.dentry) // return NULL inode_permission(realinode) inode->i_sb // NULL pointer dereference , will trigger an null pointer dereference at realinode: [ 335.664979] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000002 [ 335.668032] CPU: 0 PID: 2592 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.3.0 [ 335.669956] RIP: 0010:inode_permission+0x33/0x2c0 [ 335.678939] Call Trace: [ 335.679165] <TASK> [ 335.679371] ovl_permission+0xde/0x320 [ 335.679723] inode_permission+0x15e/0x2c0 [ 335.680090] link_path_walk+0x115/0x550 [ 335.680771] path_lookupat.isra.0+0xb2/0x200 [ 335.681170] filename_lookup+0xda/0x240 [ 335.681922] vfs_statx+0xa6/0x1f0 [ 335.682233] vfs_fstatat+0x7b/0xb0
Fetch a reproducer in [Link].
Use the helper ovl_i_path_realinode() to get realinode and then do non-nullptr checking.
References
- https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53260.html
- https://bugzilla.suse.com/1249768
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1a73f5b8f079fd42a544c1600beface50c63af7c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/53dd2ca2c02fdcfe3aad2345091d371063f97d17
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/69f9ae7edf9ec0ff500429101923347fcba5c8c4