CVE-2023-53240 - Vulnerability Details

- xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path

Xsk Tx can be triggered via either sendmsg() or poll() syscalls. These
two paths share a call to common function xsk_xmit() which has two
sanity checks within. A pseudo code example to show the two paths:

__xsk_sendmsg() : xsk_poll():
if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs)))
return -ENXIO; return mask;
if (unlikely(need_wait)) (...)
return -EOPNOTSUPP; xsk_xmit()
mark napi id
(...)
xsk_xmit()

xsk_xmit():
if (unlikely(!(xs->dev->flags & IFF_UP)))
return -ENETDOWN;
if (unlikely(!xs->tx))
return -ENOBUFS;

As it can be observed above, in sendmsg() napi id can be marked on
interface that was not brought up and this causes a NULL ptr
dereference:

[31757.505631] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
[31757.512710] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
[31757.517936] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
[31757.523149] PGD 0 P4D 0
[31757.525726] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
[31757.530154] CPU: 26 PID: 95641 Comm: xdpsock Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5+ #40
[31757.536871] Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.02.01.0008.031920191559 03/19/2019
[31757.547457] RIP: 0010:xsk_sendmsg+0xde/0x180
[31757.551799] Code: 00 75 a2 48 8b 00 a8 04 75 9b 84 d2 74 69 8b 85 14 01 00 00 85 c0 75 1b 48 8b 85 28 03 00 00 48 8b 80 98 00 00 00 48 8b 40 20 <8b> 40 18 89 85 14 01 00 00 8b bd 14 01 00 00 81 ff 00 01 00 00 0f
[31757.570840] RSP: 0018:ffffc90034f27dc0 EFLAGS: 00010246
[31757.576143] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffc90034f27e18 RCX: 0000000000000000
[31757.583389] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffffc90034f27e18 RDI: ffff88984cf3c100
[31757.590631] RBP: ffff88984714a800 R08: ffff88984714a800 R09: 0000000000000000
[31757.597877] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 00000000fffffffa
[31757.605123] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 0000000000000000
[31757.612364] FS: 00007fb4c5931180(0000) GS:ffff88afdfa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[31757.620571] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[31757.626406] CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000184b41c003 CR4: 00000000007706e0
[31757.633648] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[31757.640894] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[31757.648139] PKRU: 55555554
[31757.650894] Call Trace:
[31757.653385] <TASK>
[31757.655524] sock_sendmsg+0x8f/0xa0
[31757.659077] ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x12/0x70
[31757.663416] __sys_sendto+0xfc/0x170
[31757.667051] ? do_sched_setscheduler+0xdb/0x1b0
[31757.671658] __x64_sys_sendto+0x20/0x30
[31757.675557] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90
[31757.679197] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
[31757.687969] Code: 8e f6 ff 44 8b 4c 24 2c 4c 8b 44 24 20 41 89 c4 44 8b 54 24 28 48 8b 54 24 18 b8 2c 00 00 00 48 8b 74 24 10 8b 7c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3a 44 89 e7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 b5 8e f6 ff 48
[31757.707007] RSP: 002b:00007ffd49c73c70 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c
[31757.714694] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055a996565380 RCX: 00007fb4c5727c16
[31757.721939] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003
[31757.729184] RBP: 0000000000000040 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[31757.736429] R10: 0000000000000040 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000
[31757.743673] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
[31757.754940] </TASK>

To fix this, let's make xsk_xmit a function that will be responsible for
generic Tx, where RCU is handled accordingly and pull out sanity checks
and xs->zc handling. Populate sanity checks to __xsk_sendmsg() and
xsk_poll().

Published: 2025-09-15

Score: 5.5 Medium

EPSS: < 1% Very Low

KEV: No

Impact:

Action:

Analysis

Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions

Linux

unaffected

Version	Status	Constraints
`18b1ab7aa76bde181bdb1ab19a87fa9523c32f21`	affected	< cecc68559cd57fffb2be50685f262b9af2318e16
`18b1ab7aa76bde181bdb1ab19a87fa9523c32f21`	affected	< ffe19750e68d0bb21e8110b398346eef20b156a7
`18b1ab7aa76bde181bdb1ab19a87fa9523c32f21`	affected	< 1596dae2f17ec5c6e8c8f0e3fec78c5ae55c1e0b
`ad7219cd8751bd258b9d1e69ae0654ec00f71875`	affected	—
`d1579253ffce39986e7a6ab757ac93b2680a665f`	affected	—
`8a2dea162b92c322f3e42eae0c4a74b8d20aa7a9`	affected	—

Linux

affected

Version	Status	Constraints
`5.18`	affected	—
`0`	unaffected	< 5.18
`6.1.16`	unaffected	≤ 6.1.*
`6.2.3`	unaffected	≤ 6.2.*
`6.3`	unaffected	≤ *

Configuration 1 [-]

OR	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::

No data.

Vendor	Product	Confidence	Versions
Linux	Linux Kernel	—	—

Found an issue or want to improve our Enrichment? You can suggest it directly by opening an issue on our dedicated GitHub repository .

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source	ID	Title
EUVD	EUVD-2023-59844	In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path Xsk Tx can be triggered via either sendmsg() or poll() syscalls. These two paths share a call to common function xsk_xmit() which has two sanity checks within. A pseudo code example to show the two paths: __xsk_sendmsg() : xsk_poll(): if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) return -ENXIO; return mask; if (unlikely(need_wait)) (...) return -EOPNOTSUPP; xsk_xmit() mark napi id (...) xsk_xmit() xsk_xmit(): if (unlikely(!(xs->dev->flags & IFF_UP))) return -ENETDOWN; if (unlikely(!xs->tx)) return -ENOBUFS; As it can be observed above, in sendmsg() napi id can be marked on interface that was not brought up and this causes a NULL ptr dereference: [31757.505631] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 [31757.512710] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [31757.517936] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [31757.523149] PGD 0 P4D 0 [31757.525726] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [31757.530154] CPU: 26 PID: 95641 Comm: xdpsock Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5+ #40 [31757.536871] Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.02.01.0008.031920191559 03/19/2019 [31757.547457] RIP: 0010:xsk_sendmsg+0xde/0x180 [31757.551799] Code: 00 75 a2 48 8b 00 a8 04 75 9b 84 d2 74 69 8b 85 14 01 00 00 85 c0 75 1b 48 8b 85 28 03 00 00 48 8b 80 98 00 00 00 48 8b 40 20 <8b> 40 18 89 85 14 01 00 00 8b bd 14 01 00 00 81 ff 00 01 00 00 0f [31757.570840] RSP: 0018:ffffc90034f27dc0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [31757.576143] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffc90034f27e18 RCX: 0000000000000000 [31757.583389] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffffc90034f27e18 RDI: ffff88984cf3c100 [31757.590631] RBP: ffff88984714a800 R08: ffff88984714a800 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.597877] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 00000000fffffffa [31757.605123] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.612364] FS: 00007fb4c5931180(0000) GS:ffff88afdfa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [31757.620571] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [31757.626406] CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000184b41c003 CR4: 00000000007706e0 [31757.633648] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [31757.640894] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [31757.648139] PKRU: 55555554 [31757.650894] Call Trace: [31757.653385] <TASK> [31757.655524] sock_sendmsg+0x8f/0xa0 [31757.659077] ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x12/0x70 [31757.663416] __sys_sendto+0xfc/0x170 [31757.667051] ? do_sched_setscheduler+0xdb/0x1b0 [31757.671658] __x64_sys_sendto+0x20/0x30 [31757.675557] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 [31757.679197] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [31757.687969] Code: 8e f6 ff 44 8b 4c 24 2c 4c 8b 44 24 20 41 89 c4 44 8b 54 24 28 48 8b 54 24 18 b8 2c 00 00 00 48 8b 74 24 10 8b 7c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3a 44 89 e7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 b5 8e f6 ff 48 [31757.707007] RSP: 002b:00007ffd49c73c70 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c [31757.714694] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055a996565380 RCX: 00007fb4c5727c16 [31757.721939] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003 [31757.729184] RBP: 0000000000000040 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.736429] R10: 0000000000000040 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000 [31757.743673] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.754940] </TASK> To fix this, let's make xsk_xmit a function that will be responsible for generic Tx, where RCU is handled accordingly and pull out sanity checks and xs->zc handling. Populate sanity checks to __xsk_sendmsg() and xsk_poll().

No CVSS v4.0

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required Low

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact None

Availability Impact High

User Interaction None

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

The EPSS score is 0.00017.

Exploitation none

Automatable no

Technical Impact partial

References

Link	Providers
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1596dae2f17ec5c6e8c8f0e3fec78c5ae55c1e0b
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cecc68559cd57fffb2be50685f262b9af2318e16
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ffe19750e68d0bb21e8110b398346eef20b156a7
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025091516-CVE-2023-53240-c379@gregkh/T
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53240
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53240

History

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:15:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Metrics		ssvc `{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}`

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 20:45:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Weaknesses		CWE-476
CPEs		cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
Metrics	cvssV3_1 `{'score': 7.0, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}`	cvssV3_1 `{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}`

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
First Time appeared		Linux Linux linux Kernel
Vendors & Products		Linux Linux linux Kernel

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:15:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
References		https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025091516-CVE-2023-53240-c379@gregkh/T https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53240 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53240
Metrics	threat_severity `None`	cvssV3_1 `{'score': 7.0, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}` threat_severity `Moderate`

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:45:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Description		In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path Xsk Tx can be triggered via either sendmsg() or poll() syscalls. These two paths share a call to common function xsk_xmit() which has two sanity checks within. A pseudo code example to show the two paths: __xsk_sendmsg() : xsk_poll(): if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) return -ENXIO; return mask; if (unlikely(need_wait)) (...) return -EOPNOTSUPP; xsk_xmit() mark napi id (...) xsk_xmit() xsk_xmit(): if (unlikely(!(xs->dev->flags & IFF_UP))) return -ENETDOWN; if (unlikely(!xs->tx)) return -ENOBUFS; As it can be observed above, in sendmsg() napi id can be marked on interface that was not brought up and this causes a NULL ptr dereference: [31757.505631] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 [31757.512710] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [31757.517936] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [31757.523149] PGD 0 P4D 0 [31757.525726] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [31757.530154] CPU: 26 PID: 95641 Comm: xdpsock Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5+ #40 [31757.536871] Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.02.01.0008.031920191559 03/19/2019 [31757.547457] RIP: 0010:xsk_sendmsg+0xde/0x180 [31757.551799] Code: 00 75 a2 48 8b 00 a8 04 75 9b 84 d2 74 69 8b 85 14 01 00 00 85 c0 75 1b 48 8b 85 28 03 00 00 48 8b 80 98 00 00 00 48 8b 40 20 <8b> 40 18 89 85 14 01 00 00 8b bd 14 01 00 00 81 ff 00 01 00 00 0f [31757.570840] RSP: 0018:ffffc90034f27dc0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [31757.576143] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffc90034f27e18 RCX: 0000000000000000 [31757.583389] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffffc90034f27e18 RDI: ffff88984cf3c100 [31757.590631] RBP: ffff88984714a800 R08: ffff88984714a800 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.597877] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 00000000fffffffa [31757.605123] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.612364] FS: 00007fb4c5931180(0000) GS:ffff88afdfa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [31757.620571] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [31757.626406] CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000184b41c003 CR4: 00000000007706e0 [31757.633648] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [31757.640894] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [31757.648139] PKRU: 55555554 [31757.650894] Call Trace: [31757.653385] <TASK> [31757.655524] sock_sendmsg+0x8f/0xa0 [31757.659077] ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x12/0x70 [31757.663416] __sys_sendto+0xfc/0x170 [31757.667051] ? do_sched_setscheduler+0xdb/0x1b0 [31757.671658] __x64_sys_sendto+0x20/0x30 [31757.675557] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 [31757.679197] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [31757.687969] Code: 8e f6 ff 44 8b 4c 24 2c 4c 8b 44 24 20 41 89 c4 44 8b 54 24 28 48 8b 54 24 18 b8 2c 00 00 00 48 8b 74 24 10 8b 7c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3a 44 89 e7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 b5 8e f6 ff 48 [31757.707007] RSP: 002b:00007ffd49c73c70 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c [31757.714694] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055a996565380 RCX: 00007fb4c5727c16 [31757.721939] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003 [31757.729184] RBP: 0000000000000040 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.736429] R10: 0000000000000040 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000 [31757.743673] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.754940] </TASK> To fix this, let's make xsk_xmit a function that will be responsible for generic Tx, where RCU is handled accordingly and pull out sanity checks and xs->zc handling. Populate sanity checks to __xsk_sendmsg() and xsk_poll().
Title		xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path
References		https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1596dae2f17ec5c6e8c8f0e3fec78c5ae55c1e0b https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cecc68559cd57fffb2be50685f262b9af2318e16 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ffe19750e68d0bb21e8110b398346eef20b156a7

Subscriptions

Linux Linux Kernel

MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published: 2025-09-15T14:22:14.241Z

Updated: 2026-05-11T19:40:57.229Z

Reserved: 2025-09-15T14:19:21.848Z

Link: CVE-2023-53240

Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-01-14T17:57:32.342Z

NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2025-09-15T15:15:51.120

Modified: 2026-01-14T18:16:35.390

Link: CVE-2023-53240

Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2025-09-15T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2023-53240 - Bugzilla

OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2025-09-17T10:07:23Z

Weaknesses

CWE-476

Tracking

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required Low

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact None

Availability Impact High

User Interaction None

Exploitation none

Automatable no

Technical Impact partial

Subscriptions

JSON object

JSON object

JSON object

JSON object

JSON object