CVE-2023-53338

HIGH

Linux Kernel 4.10-5.4.257 - Use-After-Free in BPF Xmit Operations

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lwt: Fix return values of BPF xmit ops BPF encap ops can return different types of positive values, such like NET_RX_DROP, NET_XMIT_CN, NETDEV_TX_BUSY, and so on, from function skb_do_redirect and bpf_lwt_xmit_reroute. At the xmit hook, such return values would be treated implicitly as LWTUNNEL_XMIT_CONTINUE in ip(6)_finish_output2. When this happens, skbs that have been freed would continue to the neighbor subsystem, causing use-after-free bug and kernel crashes. To fix the incorrect behavior, skb_do_redirect return values can be simply discarded, the same as tc-egress behavior. On the other hand, bpf_lwt_xmit_reroute returns useful errors to local senders, e.g. PMTU information. Thus convert its return values to avoid the conflict with LWTUNNEL_XMIT_CONTINUE.

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0019
EPSS Percentile 9.4%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact total

Details

CWE
CWE-416
Status published
Products (17)
Linux/Linux < 4.10
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - 065d5f17096ec9161180e2c890afdff4dc6125f2
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - 29b22badb7a84b783e3a4fffca16f7768fb31205
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - 65583f9e070db7bece20710cfa2e3daeb0b831d9
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - 67f8f2bae8e7ac72e09def2b667e44704c4d1ee1
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - a97f221651fcdc891166e9bc270e3d9bfa5a0080
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - d68c17402442f5f494a2c3ebde5cb82f6aa9160a
Linux/Linux 3a0af8fd61f90920f6fa04e4f1e9a6a73c1b4fd2 - e3f647e4b642f9f6d32795a16f92c116c138d2af
Linux/Linux 4.10
Linux/Linux 5.10.195 - 5.10.*
... and 7 more
Published Sep 17, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026