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CVE Record

CVE-2023-53612: hwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: (coretemp) Simplify platform device handling Coretemp's platform driver is unconventional. All the real work is done globally by the initcall and CPU hotplug notifiers, while the "driver" effectively just wraps an allocation and the registration of the hwmon interface in a long-winded round-trip through the driver core. The whole logic of dynamically creating and destroying platform devices to bring the interfaces up and down is error prone, since it assumes platform_device_add() will synchronously bind the driver and set drvdata before it returns, thus results in a NULL dereference if drivers_autoprobe is turned off for the platform bus. Furthermore, the unusual approach of doing that from within a CPU hotplug notifier, already commented in the code that it deadlocks suspend, also causes lockdep issues for other drivers or subsystems which may want to legitimately register a CPU hotplug notifier from a platform bus notifier. All of these issues can be solved by ripping this unusual behaviour out completely, simply tying the platform devices to the lifetime of the module itself, and directly managing the hwmon interfaces from the hotplug notifiers. There is a slight user-visible change in that /sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp will no longer appear, and /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.n will remain present if package n is hotplugged off, but hwmon users should really only be looking for the presence of the hwmon interfaces, whose behaviour remains unchanged.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysisunknown

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2023-53612 is a Linux kernel core temperature monitoring issue. In unusual platform-driver configurations, the coretemp driver could hit a NULL pointer dereference, and its CPU hotplug design could create suspend or lock-order problems. The sources do not provide CVSS, confirmed exploitation, or broad impact evidence.

Executive priority

Treat this as routine-to-moderate kernel maintenance unless affected systems are safety-critical, depend on CPU temperature telemetry, or have unusual driver probing settings. Prioritize through normal kernel patch cycles and vendor advisories.

Technical view

The coretemp hwmon driver used unconventional platform device creation from CPU hotplug notifiers. It assumed platform_device_add() would bind synchronously and set driver data, which fails when platform bus drivers_autoprobe is disabled, causing NULL dereference. The fix removes this pattern, ties platform devices to module lifetime, and manages hwmon interfaces directly from hotplug notifiers.

Likely exposure

Exposure is limited to Linux systems running affected kernel versions with the coretemp hwmon driver path present. The bundle lists Linux kernel versions from 4.10 through 6.3-era branches as affected, but does not identify distributions, appliances, or cloud services.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not show active exploitation, public exploit availability, or KEV listing. The described failure depends on kernel driver and platform bus behavior, especially drivers_autoprobe being disabled, plus CPU hotplug and suspend interactions.

Researcher notes

Evidence is narrow and source-grounded: no CVSS, CWE, exploit, or distribution mapping is included. Analysis should focus on fixed commit presence, coretemp availability, platform bus autoprobe configuration, and operational dependence on hwmon sysfs interfaces.

Mitigation direction

  • Apply vendor kernel updates that include the listed Linux stable commits.
  • Check distribution advisories for backported fixes on supported kernel packages.
  • Avoid treating sysfs path changes as regressions without reviewing the kernel fix notes.
  • Update monitoring that depends on /sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp if needed.
  • Follow vendor guidance if no packaged fix is available for your kernel branch.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory Linux kernel versions and compare them with affected branches in the CVE record.
  • Confirm whether the coretemp hwmon driver is built, loaded, or used.
  • Check vendor kernel changelogs for the referenced stable commit IDs.
  • Review monitoring for assumptions about /sys/bus/platform/drivers/coretemp.
  • Look for suspend, CPU hotplug, or hwmon errors on relevant hosts.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
8

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

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CVE-2023-53612 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
3Timeline events
0ADP providers
7Source links

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  2. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  3. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
LinuxLinuxe1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1, e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1, e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1, e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1, e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1, e1b370b64031a01bb0c4158ce250073a88921fe1unaffected
LinuxLinux4.10, 0, 5.4.235, 5.10.173, 5.15.99, 6.1.16, 6.2.3, 6.3affected
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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