CVE-2023-53698 (GCVE-0-2023-53698)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-10-22 13:23 – Updated: 2026-08-05 09:15
VLAI
Title
xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path
Summary
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.
Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Affected: f7019562f142bc041f9cde63af338d1886585923 , < 789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3 (git)
Affected: ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e , < 15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777 (git)
Affected: ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e , < 3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072 (git)
Affected: ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e , < 85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d (git)
Affected: 9f0c8a9d4ef1b9ebee0e4ac2495fe790727044aa (git)
Affected: 5.15.47 , < 5.15.127 (semver)
Affected: 5.17.15 , < 5.18 (semver)
Create a notification for this product.
Linux Linux Affected: 5.18
Unaffected: 0 , < 5.18 (semver)
Unaffected: 5.15.127 , ≤ 5.15.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.1.46 , ≤ 6.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.4.11 , ≤ 6.4.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.5 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
Create a notification for this product.
Show details on NVD website
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          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "net/xdp/xsk.c"
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          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nxsk: fix refcount underflow in error path\n\nFix a refcount underflow problem reported by syzbot that can happen\nwhen a system is running out of memory. If xp_alloc_tx_descs() fails,\nand it can only fail due to not having enough memory, then the error\npath is triggered. In this error path, the refcount of the pool is\ndecremented as it has incremented before. However, the reference to\nthe pool in the socket was not nulled. This means that when the socket\nis closed later, the socket teardown logic will think that there is a\npool attached to the socket and try to decrease the refcount again,\nleading to a refcount underflow.\n\nI chose this fix as it involved adding just a single line. Another\noption would have been to move xp_get_pool() and the assignment of\nxs-\u003epool to after the if-statement and using xs_umem-\u003epool instead of\nxs-\u003epool in the whole if-statement resulting in somewhat simpler code,\nbut this would have led to much more churn in the code base perhaps\nmaking it harder to backport."
        }
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            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
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              "value": "AV:L - The vulnerability is reached through the AF_XDP `socket()`/`setsockopt()`/`bind()` syscall interface, a purely local kernel API with no network exposure.\nAC:L - The attacker controls both sockets and the Tx-ring allocation size, and can induce memory pressure and recreate the pool to retry, making the required allocation failure inducible and repeatable.\nPR:L - Creating the AF_XDP socket requires CAP_NET_RAW, but this is checked against `net-\u003euser_ns`, so an unprivileged local user obtains it via an unprivileged user+network namespace (`unshare -Urn`).\nUI:N - The attacker performs all socket setup, binding, and teardown steps itself; no action by another user is required.\nS:U - The corruption is confined to the kernel\u0027s own buffer-pool objects within the same security authority; no VM, IOMMU, or sandbox boundary is crossed.\nC:H - The premature free produces a use-after-free of the `xsk_buff_pool`; a reclaimed-and-sprayed allocation lets the attacker read freed-object contents, yielding arbitrary kernel memory disclosure.\nI:H - The use-after-free/double-free of the pool provides a write primitive (dangling refcount and pool fields) exploitable via heap spraying for kernel memory corruption and control-flow hijacking.\nA:H - The refcount underflow frees a pool still in use by another socket, reliably causing use-after-free memory corruption, oops, or panic."
            }
          ]
        }
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      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T09:15:36.147Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3"
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d"
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      ],
      "title": "xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path",
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    "cveId": "CVE-2023-53698",
    "datePublished": "2025-10-22T13:23:38.384Z",
    "dateReserved": "2025-10-22T13:21:37.345Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T09:15:36.147Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
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    "redhat_vex": {
      "aggregate_severity": "Moderate",
      "current_release_date": "2026-08-04T19:15:27+00:00",
      "cve": "CVE-2023-53698",
      "id": "CVE-2023-53698",
      "initial_release_date": "2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00",
      "product_status:fixed": "120",
      "product_status:known_affected": "124",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "118",
      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
      "status": "final",
      "title": "kernel: xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path",
      "url": "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2023/cve-2023-53698.json",
      "version": "3"
    },
    "suse_vex": {
      "aggregate_severity": "low",
      "current_release_date": "2026-07-25T02:13:32Z",
      "cve": "CVE-2023-53698",
      "id": "CVE-2023-53698",
      "initial_release_date": "2025-10-22T23:59:19Z",
      "product_status:known_affected": "451",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "217",
      "product_status:recommended": "366",
      "source": "SUSE CSAF VEX",
      "status": "interim",
      "title": "SUSE CVE CVE-2023-53698",
      "url": "https://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/security/csaf-vex/cve-2023-53698.json",
      "version": "40"
    }
  }
}



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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.