CVE-2023-53698
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path Fix a refcount underflow problem reported by syzbot that can happen when a system is running out of memory. If xp_alloc_tx_descs() fails, and it can only fail due to not having enough memory, then the error path is triggered. In this error path, the refcount of the pool is decremented as it has incremented before. However, the reference to the pool in the socket was not nulled. This means that when the socket is closed later, the socket teardown logic will think that there is a pool attached to the socket and try to decrease the refcount again, leading to a refcount underflow. I chose this fix as it involved adding just a single line. Another option would have been to move xp_get_pool() and the assignment of xs->pool to after the if-statement and using xs_umem->pool instead of xs->pool in the whole if-statement resulting in somewhat simpler code, but this would have led to much more churn in the code base perhaps making it harder to backport.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
5.15.47,
5.17.15,
5.18
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.15.127,
6.1.46,
6.4.11,
6.5
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53698 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2023-53698?
CVE-2023-53698 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.15.47 onward and has been patched in 5.15.127, 6.1.46, 6.4.11 and others. CVE-2023-53698 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53698?
Yes — CVE-2023-53698 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.15.127, 6.1.46, 6.4.11 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.15.47 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2023-53698 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2023-53698 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.