CVE-2023-0122 — A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the Linux kernel NVMe functionality,

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the Linux kernel NVMe functionality, in nvmet_setup_auth(), allows an attacker to perform a Pre-Auth Denial of Service (DoS) attack on a remote machine. Affected versions v6.0-rc1 to v6.0-rc3, fixed in v6.0-rc4.

01What is this vulnerability?

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the Linux kernel NVMe functionality, in nvmet_setup_auth(), allows an attacker to perform a Pre-Auth Denial of Service (DoS) attack on a remote machine. Affected versions v6.0-rc1 to v6.0-rc3, fixed in v6.0-rc4.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / Kernel	Linux kernel 6.0-rc4

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-01-17T00:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-04-04T18:50:52.615Z

09References

• git.kernel.org — https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=da…
• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/01/18/1
• security.netapp.com — https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230302-0002/