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CVE-2023-53612

Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling Coretemp's platform driver is unconventional. All the real work is done globally by the initcall and CPU hotplug notifiers, while the "driver" effectively just wraps an allocation and the registration of the hwmon interface in a long-winded round-trip through the driver core. The whole logic of dynamically creating and destroying platform devices to bring the interfaces up and down is error prone, since it assumes platform_device_add() will synchronously bind the driver and set drvdata before it returns, thus results in a NULL dereference if drivers_autoprobe is turned off for the platform bus. Furthermore, the unusual approach of doing that from within a CPU hotplug notifier, already commented in the code that it deadlocks suspend, also causes lockdep issues for other drivers or subsystems which may want to legitimately register a CPU hotplug notifier from a platform bus notifier. All of these issues can be solved by ripping this unusual behaviour out completely, simply tying the platform devices to the lifetime of the module itself, and directly managing the hwmon interfaces from the hotplug notifiers. There is a slight user-visible change in that /sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp will no longer appear, and /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.n will remain present if package n is hotplugged off, but hwmon users should really only be looking for the presence of the hwmon interfaces, whose behaviour remains unchanged.

Severity
MEDIUM
CVSS score
5.5 (v3.1)
Vulnerability status
Analyzed
Source identifier
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Published
2025-10-04 16:15:57.987000
Last modified
2026-11-05 21:17:29.023000
View original CVE JSON 
{
  "id": "CVE-2023-53612",
  "sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
  "published": "2025-10-04T16:15:57.987",
  "lastModified": "2026-11-05T21:17:29.023",
  "vulnStatus": "Analyzed",
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nhwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling\n\nCoretemp's platform driver is unconventional. All the real work is done\nglobally by the initcall and CPU hotplug notifiers, while the \"driver\"\neffectively just wraps an allocation and the registration of the hwmon\ninterface in a long-winded round-trip through the driver core.  The whole\nlogic of dynamically creating and destroying platform devices to bring\nthe interfaces up and down is error prone, since it assumes\nplatform_device_add() will synchronously bind the driver and set drvdata\nbefore it returns, thus results in a NULL dereference if drivers_autoprobe\nis turned off for the platform bus. Furthermore, the unusual approach of\ndoing that from within a CPU hotplug notifier, already commented in the\ncode that it deadlocks suspend, also causes lockdep issues for other\ndrivers or subsystems which may want to legitimately register a CPU\nhotplug notifier from a platform bus notifier.\n\nAll of these issues can be solved by ripping this unusual behaviour out\ncompletely, simply tying the platform devices to the lifetime of the\nmodule itself, and directly managing the hwmon interfaces from the\nhotplug notifiers. There is a slight user-visible change in that\n/sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp will no longer appear, and\n/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.n will remain present if package n is\nhotplugged off, but hwmon users should really only be looking for the\npresence of the hwmon interfaces, whose behaviour remains unchanged."
    }
  ],
  "affected": [
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      "affectedData": [
        {
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          "product": "Linux",
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          "programFiles": [
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          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
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              "versionType": "git",
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        },
        {
          "vendor": "Linux",
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          "programFiles": [
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          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
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            },
            {
              "version": "5.4.235",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "5.4.*",
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              "status": "unaffected"
            },
            {
              "version": "5.10.173",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "5.10.*",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "status": "unaffected"
            },
            {
              "version": "5.15.99",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "5.15.*",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "status": "unaffected"
            },
            {
              "version": "6.1.16",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.1.*",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "status": "unaffected"
            },
            {
              "version": "6.2.3",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.2.*",
              "versionType": "semver",
              "status": "unaffected"
            },
            {
              "version": "6.3",
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
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            }
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        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "source": "[email protected]",
        "type": "Primary",
        "cvssData": {
          "version": "3.1",
          "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
          "baseScore": 5.5,
          "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
          "attackVector": "LOCAL",
          "attackComplexity": "LOW",
          "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
          "scope": "UNCHANGED",
          "confidentialityImpact": "NONE",
          "integrityImpact": "NONE",
          "availabilityImpact": "HIGH"
        },
        "exploitabilityScore": 1.8,
        "impactScore": 3.6
      }
    ],
    "ssvcV203": [
      {
        "source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
        "ssvcData": {
          "timestamp": "2026-11-05T20:25:39.478335Z",
          "id": "CVE-2023-53612",
          "options": [
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              "exploitation": "none"
            },
            {
              "automatable": "no"
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            }
          ],
          "role": "CISA Coordinator",
          "version": "2.0.3"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "weaknesses": [
    {
      "source": "[email protected]",
      "type": "Primary",
      "description": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "CWE-476"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "configurations": [
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          "negate": false,
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}