CVE-2023-54007: 
Linux Kernel vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2023-54007 is a race condition vulnerability in the Linux kernel's VMCI (Virtual Machine Communication Interface) host driver, specifically in the vmci_host_poll() function located in drivers/misc/vmw_vmci/vmci_host.c. The flaw was discovered during fuzzing and triggers a general protection fault (GPF) due to a null pointer dereference when two threads — one executing vmci_host_poll() and another executing vmci_host_do_init_context() — interleave in an unsafe manner. It was published on December 24, 2025, and affects the Linux kernel. The EPSS score is approximately 0.024% (low), and no CVSS score has been publicly assigned at this time (Feedly, CVE.org).

The root cause is a race condition (CWE-362) in vmci_host_poll() within the Linux kernel's VMCI host driver. When vmci_host_poll() calls poll_wait() and attempts to add a wait queue entry, a concurrent call to vmci_host_do_init_context() on another CPU can result in the wait queue pointer being in an uninitialized or partially initialized state. This causes KASAN to report a null pointer dereference in the range [0x00000000000000c8-0x00000000000000cf], ultimately triggering a general protection fault in __lock_acquire() within the kernel's locking subsystem. The vulnerability requires local access and the ability to interact with the VMCI host device, typically available to processes running inside a VMware virtual machine or with access to /dev/vmci (Feedly).

Successful exploitation of this race condition causes a kernel general protection fault, leading to a system crash and denial of service on the affected host. Because the fault occurs in kernel space within the locking subsystem, it can destabilize the entire system, potentially affecting all workloads running on the host. There is no evidence of confidentiality or integrity impact beyond the availability disruption caused by the kernel crash (Feedly).

No public proof-of-concept exploit code or in-the-wild exploitation has been reported for CVE-2023-54007. The vulnerability was identified through fuzzing rather than active exploitation. The EPSS score is 0.024%, indicating a very low probability of exploitation in the near term. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. Exploitation requires local access to a system with the VMCI host driver loaded, limiting the attack surface (Feedly).

The Linux kernel maintainers have issued patches addressing this race condition across multiple stable branches, with fixes committed to the kernel stable tree (commits 67e35824f861, 85b4aa4eb2e3, 770d30b1355c, 2053e93ac155, and ab64bd32b9fa). Users should update to a patched kernel version that includes these fixes. As a workaround, systems that do not require VMware VMCI functionality can unload or blacklist the vmw_vmci kernel module to eliminate the attack surface (Feedly, Kernel Stable).