CVE-2023-54149

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: avoid suspicious RCU usage for synced VLAN-aware MAC addresses When using the felix driver (the only one which supports UC filtering and MC filtering) as a DSA master for a random other DSA switch, one can see the following stack trace when the downstream switch ports join a VLAN-aware bridge: ============================= WARNING: suspicious RCU usage ----------------------------- net/8021q/vlan_core.c:238 suspicious rcu_dereference_protected() usage! stack backtrace: Workqueue: dsa_ordered dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work Call trace: lockdep_rcu_suspicious+0x170/0x210 vlan_for_each+0x8c/0x188 dsa_slave_sync_uc+0x128/0x178 __hw_addr_sync_dev+0x138/0x158 dsa_slave_set_rx_mode+0x58/0x70 __dev_set_rx_mode+0x88/0xa8 dev_uc_add+0x74/0xa0 dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add+0xec/0x180 dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work+0x7c/0x1c8 process_one_work+0x290/0x568 What it's saying is that vlan_for_each() expects rtnl_lock() context and it's not getting it, when it's called from the DSA master's ndo_set_rx_mode(). The caller of that - dsa_slave_set_rx_mode() - is the slave DSA interface's dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add() which comes from the deferred dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work(). We went to great lengths to avoid the rtnl_lock() context in that call path in commit 0faf890fc519 ("net: dsa: drop rtnl_lock from dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work"), and calling rtnl_lock() is simply not an option due to the possibility of deadlocking when calling dsa_flush_workqueue() from the call paths that do hold rtnl_lock() - basically all of them. So, when the DSA master calls vlan_for_each() from its ndo_set_rx_mode(), the state of the 8021q driver on this device is really not protected from concurrent access by anything. Looking at net/8021q/, I don't think that vlan_info->vid_list was particularly designed with RCU traversal in mind, so introducing an RCU read-side form of vlan_for_each() - vlan_for_each_rcu() - won't be so easy, and it also wouldn't be exactly what we need anyway. In general I believe that the solution isn't in net/8021q/ anyway; vlan_for_each() is not cut out for this task. DSA doesn't need rtnl_lock() to be held per se - since it's not a netdev state change that we're blocking, but rather, just concurrent additions/removals to a VLAN list. We don't even need sleepable context - the callback of vlan_for_each() just schedules deferred work. The proposed escape is to remove the dependency on vlan_for_each() and to open-code a non-sleepable, rtnl-free alternative to that, based on copies of the VLAN list modified from .ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid() and .ndo_vlan_rx_kill_vid().

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-12-24
Last modified 2026-04-15
Patch available
Yes

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.2.10, 6.3 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.3.13, 6.4.4, 6.5 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 6.2.10 ≥ 6.3
Fixed in
✓ 6.3.13 6.3.x ✓ 6.4.4 6.4.x ✓ 6.5

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-54149 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2023-54149?

    CVE-2023-54149 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.2.10 onward and has been patched in 6.3.13, 6.4.4 and 6.5. CVE-2023-54149 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-54149?

    Yes — CVE-2023-54149 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.3.13, 6.4.4 and 6.5. If you are running Linux kernel 6.2.10 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2023-54149 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2023-54149 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.