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CVE-2023-2163
Incorrect Verifier Branch Pruning Logic Leads To Arbitrary Read/Write In Linux Kernel and Lateral Privilege Escalation
Critical10.0EPSS 3.6%
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
Description
Incorrect verifier pruning in BPF in Linux Kernel >=5.4 leads to unsafe code paths being incorrectly marked as safe, resulting in arbitrary read/write in kernel memory, lateral privilege escalation, and container escape.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoogleCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 3.6% · top 10% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
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The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Weakness
Affected products
- unaffected < 5.4
- affected < 71b547f561247897a0a14f3082730156c0533fed
References (2)
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=71b547f561247897a0a14f3082730156c0533fed (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://bughunters.google.com/blog/6303226026131456/a-deep-dive-into-cve-2023-2163-how-we-found-and-fixed-an-ebpf-linux-kernel-vulnerability (opens in a new tab)technical-description
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-2163)Record last updated .