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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53856

medium Nessus Plugin ID 277837

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: of: overlay: Call of_changeset_init() early When of_overlay_fdt_apply() fails, the changeset may be partially applied, and the caller is still expected to call of_overlay_remove() to clean up this partial state. However, of_overlay_apply() calls of_resolve_phandles() before init_overlay_changeset(). Hence if the overlay fails to apply due to an unresolved symbol, the overlay_changeset.cset.entries list is still uninitialized, and cleanup will crash with a NULL-pointer dereference in overlay_removal_is_ok(). Fix this by moving the call to of_changeset_init() from init_overlay_changeset() to of_overlay_fdt_apply(), where all other early initialization is done. (CVE-2023-53856)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53856

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 277837

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2023_53856.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 12/9/2025

Updated: 12/9/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.9

Temporal Score: 4.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2023-53856

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 5.1

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/9/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-53856