Bug 2400817 (CVE-2023-53515)

Summary: CVE-2023-53515 kernel: virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-10-01 12:09:01 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

virtio-mmio: don't break lifecycle of vm_dev

vm_dev has a separate lifecycle because it has a 'struct device'
embedded. Thus, having a release callback for it is correct.

Allocating the vm_dev struct with devres totally breaks this protection,
though. Instead of waiting for the vm_dev release callback, the memory
is freed when the platform_device is removed. Resulting in a
use-after-free when finally the callback is to be called.

To easily see the problem, compile the kernel with
CONFIG_DEBUG_KOBJECT_RELEASE and unbind with sysfs.

The fix is easy, don't use devres in this case.

Found during my research about object lifetime problems.
Comment 1 Jon Moroney 2025-10-01 17:49:21 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025100131-CVE-2023-53515-abe8@gregkh/T