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🛡️ CVE-2023-53186 — kernel

🟠 CVSS 8.1 — High ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
8.1
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

skbuff: Fix a race between coalescing and releasing SKBs

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

skbuff: Fix a race between coalescing and releasing SKBs

Commit 1effe8ca4e34 ("skbuff: fix coalescing for page_pool fragment

recycling") allowed coalescing to proceed with non page pool page and page

pool page when @from is cloned, i.e.

to->pp_recycle --> false

from->pp_recycle --> true

skb_cloned(from) --> true

However, it actually requires skb_cloned(@from) to hold true until

coalescing finishes in this situation. If the other cloned SKB is

released while the merging is in process, from_shinfo->nr_frags will be

set to 0 toward the end of the function, causing the increment of frag

page _refcount to be unexpectedly skipped resulting in inconsistent

reference counts. Later when SKB(@to) is released, it frees the page

directly even though the page pool page is still in use, leading to

use-after-free or double-free errors. So it should be prohibited.

The double-free error message below prompted us to investigate:

BUG: Bad page state in process swapper/1 pfn:0e0d1

page:00000000c6548b28 refcount:-1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000

index:0x2 pfn:0xe0d1

flags: 0xfffffc0000000(node=0|zone=1|lastcpupid=0x1fffff)

raw: 000fffffc0000000 0000000000000000 ffffffff00000101 0000000000000000

raw: 0000000000000002 0000000000000000 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000000

page dumped because: nonzero _refcount

CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Tainted: G E 6.2.0+

Call Trace:

<IRQ>

dump_stack_lvl+0x32/0x50

bad_page+0x69/0xf0

free_pcp_prepare+0x260/0x2f0

free_unref_page+0x20/0x1c0

skb_release_data+0x10b/0x1a0

napi_consume_skb+0x56/0x150

net_rx_action+0xf0/0x350

? __napi_schedule+0x79/0x90

__do_softirq+0xc8/0x2b1

__irq_exit_rcu+0xb9/0xf0

common_interrupt+0x82/0xa0

</IRQ>

<TASK>

asm_common_interrupt+0x22/0x40

RIP: 0010:default_idle+0xb/0x20

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is high, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: High — the attacker first has to win a race, learn a secret or otherwise prepare the target.
  • Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated stranger can try it.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Integrity impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Affected software

CVE-2023-53186 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.2.0 up to 6.2.12)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 15 September 2025 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

Other advisories for this package

kernel has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

CVE-2023-53186 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity High
CVSS Score 8.1
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-09-15
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.2.0 6.2.12
linux-kernel — —

Similar Threats

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