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Linux CVE-2023-53566

| EUVDEUVD-2025-32293 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2025-10-04 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Impact

Typically causes application crash (denial of service). In some cases, may be exploitable for code execution on systems without memory protection. With a CVSS score of 5.5 (MEDIUM), this represents a moderate risk.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker provides input that causes a code path where a pointer is dereferenced without a prior NULL check, crashing the application.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 13, 2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nft_set_rbtree: fix null deref on element insertion There is no guarantee that rb_prev() will not return NULL in nft_rbtree_gc_elem(): general protection fault,...

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Mar 13, 2026 - 19:56 CVSS 5.5

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available — apply it immediately. Add NULL checks before pointer dereference operations. Use static analysis to identify potential NULL pointer issues. Enable compiler warnings.

Affected VersionsENISA

Linux c9e6978e2725a7d4b6cd23b2facd3f11422c0643 <61ae320a29b0540c16931816299eb86bf2b66c08
Linux c9e6978e2725a7d4b6cd23b2facd3f11422c0643 <a337706c1fb35aac3f26b48aca80421bdbe1d33a
Linux patch: 6.4
Linux 6.2
Linux 2bf1435fa19d2c58054391b3bba40d5510a5758c <ec5caa765f7f6960011c919c9aeb1467940421f6
Linux 7ab87a326f20c52ff4d9972052d085be951c704b <b76db53ee8802ee5683f8cb401d7e2ec6f9b3d56
Linux patch: 6.1.30
Linux patch: 6.3.4
Linux 318cb24a4c3fce8140afaf84e4d45fcb76fb280b <a836be60a3aabcedcd9c79f545d409ace1f20ba6
Linux 181859bdfb9734aca449512fccaee4cacce64aed <899aa5638568abf5d69de7a7bb95e4615157375b
Linux 4aacf3d78424293e318c616016865380b37b9cc5 <3fa13203b6d90cc3a33af47b058739f92ab82eef
Linux patch: 5.15.113
Linux patch: 5.10.181
Linux patch: 0

Affected Packages

euvd linux no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application attempts to use a pointer that has not been initialized or has been set to NULL.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
SUSE MEDIUM
Red Hat 6.4 MEDIUM

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Mar 21, 2026 - 00:42 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Oct 04, 2025 - 16:15 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionNVD

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfilter: nft_set_rbtree: fix null deref on element insertion

There is no guarantee that rb_prev() will not return NULL in nft_rbtree_gc_elem():

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000003: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000018-0x000000000000001f] nft_add_set_elem+0x14b0/0x2990 nf_tables_newsetelem+0x528/0xb30

Furthermore, there is a possible use-after-free while iterating, 'node' can be free'd so we need to cache the next value to use.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2023-53566 presents moderate security risk, a null pointer dereference vulnerability rated CVSS 5.5. Exploitation could compromise the security of affected deployments. A patch is available and should be applied during regular vulnerability management.

Business Impact: Low
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If patching is delayed: enable ASLR/DEP, apply network segmentation.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.0%
Top 99% exploitable
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.0%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
Low

Priority Score

28
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +28
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

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Oracle Java SE JDK/JRE 7 and 6 Update 27 and earlier allows remote code execution with complete system compromise throug

CVE-2019-11043 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2014-6271 CRITICAL POC
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GNU Bash through 4.3 processes trailing strings after function definitions in the values of environment variables, which

CVE-2013-0422 CRITICAL POC
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CVE-2016-3714 HIGH POC
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CVE-2017-12617 HIGH POC
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When running Apache Tomcat versions 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.0, 8.5.0 to 8.5.22, 8.0.0.RC1 to 8.0.46 and 7.0.0 to 7.0.81 with HTT

CVE-2016-8735 CRITICAL POC
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Remote code execution is possible with Apache Tomcat before 6.0.48, 7.x before 7.0.73, 8.x before 8.0.39, 8.5.x before 8

CVE-2014-7169 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Sep 25

GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-025 processes trailing strings after certain malformed function definitions in the values of

CVE-2014-0160 HIGH POC
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The (1) TLS and (2) DTLS implementations in OpenSSL 1.0.1 before 1.0.1g do not properly handle Heartbeat Extension packe

CVE-2016-5195 HIGH POC
7.0 Nov 10

Race condition in mm/gup.c in the Linux kernel 2.x through 4.x before 4.8.3 allows local users to gain privileges by lev

CVE-2013-2423 LOW POC
3.7 Apr 17

Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) component in Oracle Java SE 7 Update 17 and earlier, and

CVE-2023-4911 HIGH POC
7.8 Oct 03

Local privilege escalation in the GNU C Library (glibc) dynamic loader ld.so allows unprivileged local users on affected

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.2:latest Affected
Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.3:latest Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.4:5.4.4.5.89 Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-HPC-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-Manager-Server-4-3-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-3-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS Image SLES15-SP4-Micro-5-4-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAP-GCE Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP4-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/base-5.5:2.0.4-5.8.224 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5 Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-Micro-5-5-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP5-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/kvm-5.5:2.0.4-3.5.429 Affected
Container suse/sle-micro/rt-5.5:2.0.4-4.5.535 Affected

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