CVE-2023-53431

  • Published: 2025-09-18T16:15:47.070

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

scsi: ses: Handle enclosure with just a primary component gracefully

This reverts commit 3fe97ff3d949 (“scsi: ses: Don’t attach if enclosure
has no components”) and introduces proper handling of case where there are
no detected secondary components, but primary component (enumerated in
num_enclosures) does exist. That fix was originally proposed by Ding Hui
.

Completely ignoring devices that have one primary enclosure and no
secondary one results in ses_intf_add() bailing completely

scsi 2:0:0:254: enclosure has no enumerated components
scsi 2:0:0:254: Failed to bind enclosure -12ven in valid configurations such

even on valid configurations with 1 primary and 0 secondary enclosures as
below:

# sg_ses /dev/sg0
3PARdata SES 3321
Supported diagnostic pages:
Supported Diagnostic Pages [sdp] [0x0]
Configuration (SES) [cf] [0x1]
Short Enclosure Status (SES) [ses] [0x8]
# sg_ses -p cf /dev/sg0
3PARdata SES 3321
Configuration diagnostic page:
number of secondary subenclosures: 0
generation code: 0x0
enclosure descriptor list
Subenclosure identifier: 0 [primary]
relative ES process id: 0, number of ES processes: 1
number of type descriptor headers: 1
enclosure logical identifier (hex): 20000002ac02068d
enclosure vendor: 3PARdata product: VV rev: 3321
type descriptor header and text list
Element type: Unspecified, subenclosure id: 0
number of possible elements: 1

The changelog for the original fix follows

=====
We can get a crash when disconnecting the iSCSI session,
the call trace like this:

[ffff00002a00fb70] kfree at ffff00000830e224
[ffff00002a00fba0] ses_intf_remove at ffff000001f200e4
[ffff00002a00fbd0] device_del at ffff0000086b6a98
[ffff00002a00fc50] device_unregister at ffff0000086b6d58
[ffff00002a00fc70] __scsi_remove_device at ffff00000870608c
[ffff00002a00fca0] scsi_remove_device at ffff000008706134
[ffff00002a00fcc0] __scsi_remove_target at ffff0000087062e4
[ffff00002a00fd10] scsi_remove_target at ffff0000087064c0
[ffff00002a00fd70] __iscsi_unbind_session at ffff000001c872c4
[ffff00002a00fdb0] process_one_work at ffff00000810f35c
[ffff00002a00fe00] worker_thread at ffff00000810f648
[ffff00002a00fe70] kthread at ffff000008116e98

In ses_intf_add, components count could be 0, and kcalloc 0 size scomp,
but not saved in edev->component[i].scratch

In this situation, edev->component[0].scratch is an invalid pointer,
when kfree it in ses_intf_remove_enclosure, a crash like above would happen
The call trace also could be other random cases when kfree cannot catch
the invalid pointer

We should not use edev->component[] array when the components count is 0
We also need check index when use edev->component[] array in
ses_enclosure_data_process
=====

Related CVE by CWE

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How to fix CVE-2023-53431

CVE-2023-53431 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: ses: Handle enclosure with just a primary component gracefully This reverts commit 3fe97ff3d949 (“scsi: ses: Don’t attach if enclosure has no components”) and introduces proper handling of case where there are no detected secondary components, but primary component (enumerated in num_enclosures) does exist. That […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Sep 18, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Nov 12, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.