---
id: CVE-2023-53184
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  arm64/sme: Set new vector length before reallocating

  As part of fixing the allocation of the buffer for SVE state when changing
  SME vector length we introduced an imme…
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  arm64/sme: Set new vector length before reallocating

  As part of fixing the allocation of the buffer for SVE state when changing
  SME vector length we introduced an imme…
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-787
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - linux_kernel = 6.1.42
  - linux_kernel = 6.4.7
  - linux_kernel = 6.5
published: '2025-09-15'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T22:17:38.863'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53184'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/05d881b85b48c7ac6a7c92ce00aa916c4a84d052'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/356e711640aea6ed145da9407499388b45264cb4'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/807ada0e4aa3c9090c66009a99fa530c462012c9'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00166
epssPercentile: 0.05763
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-10-15T21:34:15.104119Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T22:48:25.400Z'
---

## Overview

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

arm64/sme: Set new vector length before reallocating

As part of fixing the allocation of the buffer for SVE state when changing
SME vector length we introduced an immediate reallocation of the SVE state,
this is also done when changing the SVE vector length for consistency.
Unfortunately this reallocation is done prior to writing the new vector
length to the task struct, meaning the allocation is done with the old
vector length and can lead to memory corruption due to an undersized buffer
being used.

Move the update of the vector length before the allocation to ensure that
the new vector length is taken into account.

For some reason this isn't triggering any problems when running tests on
the arm64 fixes branch (even after repeated tries) but is triggering
issues very often after merge into mainline.

## Affected

- `linux_kernel = 6.1.42`
- `linux_kernel = 6.4.7`
- `linux_kernel = 6.5`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.