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🛡️ CVE-2023-53489 — kernel

🟡 CVSS 5.5 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
5.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

tcp/udp: Fix memleaks of sk and zerocopy skbs with TX timestamp.

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

tcp/udp: Fix memleaks of sk and zerocopy skbs with TX timestamp.

syzkaller reported [0] memory leaks of an UDP socket and ZEROCOPY

skbs. We can reproduce the problem with these sequences:

sk = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0)

sk.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE)

sk.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_ZEROCOPY, 1)

sk.sendto(b'', MSG_ZEROCOPY, ('127.0.0.1', 53))

sk.close()

sendmsg() calls msg_zerocopy_alloc(), which allocates a skb, sets

skb->cb->ubuf.refcnt to 1, and calls sock_hold(). Here, struct

ubuf_info_msgzc indirectly holds a refcnt of the socket. When the

skb is sent, __skb_tstamp_tx() clones it and puts the clone into

the socket's error queue with the TX timestamp.

When the original skb is received locally, skb_copy_ubufs() calls

skb_unclone(), and pskb_expand_head() increments skb->cb->ubuf.refcnt.

This additional count is decremented while freeing the skb, but struct

ubuf_info_msgzc still has a refcnt, so __msg_zerocopy_callback() is

not called.

The last refcnt is not released unless we retrieve the TX timestamped

skb by recvmsg(). Since we clear the error queue in inet_sock_destruct()

after the socket's refcnt reaches 0, there is a circular dependency.

If we close() the socket holding such skbs, we never call sock_put()

and leak the count, sk, and skb.

TCP has the same problem, and commit e0c8bccd40fc ("net: stream:

purge sk_error_queue in sk_stream_kill_queues()") tried to fix it

by calling skb_queue_purge() during close(). However, there is a

small chance that skb queued in a qdisc or device could be put

into the error queue after the skb_queue_purge() call.

In __skb_tstamp_tx(), the cloned skb should not have a reference

to the ubuf to remove the circular dependency, but skb_clone() does

not call skb_copy_ubufs() for zerocopy skb. So, we need to call

skb_orphan_frags_rx() for the cloned skb to call skb_copy_ubufs().

[0]:

BUG: memory leak

unreferenced object 0xffff88800c6d2d00 (size 1152):

comm "syz-executor392", pid 264, jiffies 4294785440 (age 13.044s)

hex dump (first 32 bytes):

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 cd af e8 81 00 00 00 00 ................

02 00 07 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...@............

backtrace:

[<0000000055636812>] sk_prot_alloc+0x64/0x2a0 net/core/sock.c:2024

[<0000000054d77b7a>] sk_alloc+0x3b/0x800 net/core/sock.c:2083

[<0000000066f3c7e0>] inet_create net/ipv4/af_inet.c:319 [inline]

[<0000000066f3c7e0>] inet_create+0x31e/0xe40 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:245

[<000000009b83af97>] __sock_create+0x2ab/0x550 net/socket.c:1515

[<00000000b9b11231>] sock_create net/socket.c:1566 [inline]

[<00000000b9b11231>] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1603 [inline]

[<00000000b9b11231>] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1588 [inline]

[<00000000b9b11231>] __sys_socket+0x138/0x250 net/socket.c:1636

[<000000004fb45142>] __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1649 [inline]

[<000000004fb45142>] __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1647 [inline]

[<000000004fb45142>] __x64_sys_socket+0x73/0xb0 net/socket.c:1647

[<0000000066999e0e>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]

[<0000000066999e0e>] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80

[<0000000017f238c1>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

BUG: memory leak

unreferenced object 0xffff888017633a00 (size 240):

comm "syz-executor392", pid 264, jiffies 4294785440 (age 13.044s)

hex dump (first 32 bytes):

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2d 6d 0c 80 88 ff ff .........-m.....

backtrace:

[<000000002b1c4368>] __alloc_skb+0x229/0x320 net/core/skbuff.c:497

[<00000000143579a6>] alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1265 [inline]

[<00000000143579a6>] sock_omalloc+0xaa/0x190 net/core/sock.c:2596

[<00000000be626478>] msg_zerocopy_alloc net/core/skbuff.c:1294 [inline]

[<00000000be626478>]

---truncated---

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

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

  • Attack vector: Local — a local account, shell or session on the host is needed.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Affected software

CVE-2023-53489 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.3.0 up to 6.3.2)
  • linux-kernel (from 6.3 up to 6.3.2)

Timeline and source

Published on 1 October 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)
git.kernel.org (Web)
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-2023-53489 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity Medium
CVSS Score 5.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-10-01
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.3.0 6.3.2
linux-kernel 6.3 6.3.2

References

Similar Threats

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