---
id: CVE-2023-53470
title: 'ionic: catch failure from devlink_alloc'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  ionic: catch failure from devlink_alloc

  Add a check for NULL on the alloc return.  If devlink_alloc() fails and
  we try to use devlink_priv() on the NULL return, the ke…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c <
    c177dd465f5c1e5f242cdb9258826c591c257e9a
  - >-
    Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c <
    0d02efe7f25158c93146e3bb827bc7bb3cd5e71a
  - >-
    Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c <
    5325f50de5b1433b27dda7ccff5cb7283722a3f1
  - >-
    Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c <
    0020c16c8af7f4bc9503a2088fb30793b6771fac
  - >-
    Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c <
    4a54903ff68ddb33b6463c94b4eb37fc584ef760
  - Linux 5.4
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T20:21:49.408493Z'
published: '2025-10-01'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T20:31:10.816Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53470'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c177dd465f5c1e5f242cdb9258826c591c257e9a'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0d02efe7f25158c93146e3bb827bc7bb3cd5e71a'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5325f50de5b1433b27dda7ccff5cb7283722a3f1'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0020c16c8af7f4bc9503a2088fb30793b6771fac'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4a54903ff68ddb33b6463c94b4eb37fc584ef760'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00159
epssPercentile: 0.05083
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:31.799Z'
---

## Overview

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

ionic: catch failure from devlink_alloc

Add a check for NULL on the alloc return.  If devlink_alloc() fails and
we try to use devlink_priv() on the NULL return, the kernel gets very
unhappy and panics. With this fix, the driver load will still fail,
but at least it won't panic the kernel.

## Affected

- `Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c < c177dd465f5c1e5f242cdb9258826c591c257e9a`
- `Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c < 0d02efe7f25158c93146e3bb827bc7bb3cd5e71a`
- `Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c < 5325f50de5b1433b27dda7ccff5cb7283722a3f1`
- `Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c < 0020c16c8af7f4bc9503a2088fb30793b6771fac`
- `Linux >= df69ba43217d3cf4215c83c0627ce98a26e56e7c < 4a54903ff68ddb33b6463c94b4eb37fc584ef760`
- `Linux 5.4`

## Remediation

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