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🛡️ CVE-2023-54090 — kernel

🔴 CVSS 9.8 — Critical ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
9.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

ixgbe: Fix panic during XDP_TX with > 64 CPUs

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

ixgbe: Fix panic during XDP_TX with > 64 CPUs

Commit 4fe815850bdc ("ixgbe: let the xdpdrv work with more than 64 cpus")

adds support to allow XDP programs to run on systems with more than

64 CPUs by locking the XDP TX rings and indexing them using cpu % 64

(IXGBE_MAX_XDP_QS).

Upon trying this out patch on a system with more than 64 cores,

the kernel paniced with an array-index-out-of-bounds at the return in

ixgbe_determine_xdp_ring in ixgbe.h, which means ixgbe_determine_xdp_q_idx

was just returning the cpu instead of cpu % IXGBE_MAX_XDP_QS. An example

splat:

==========================================================================

UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in

/var/lib/dkms/ixgbe/5.18.6+focal-1/build/src/ixgbe.h:1147:26

index 65 is out of range for type 'ixgbe_ring *[64]'

==========================================================================

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000058

#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode

#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page

PGD 0 P4D 0

Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI

CPU: 65 PID: 408 Comm: ksoftirqd/65

Tainted: G IOE 5.15.0-48-generic #54~20.04.1-Ubuntu

Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R640/0W23H8, BIOS 2.5.4 01/13/2020

RIP: 0010:ixgbe_xmit_xdp_ring+0x1b/0x1c0 [ixgbe]

Code: 3b 52 d4 cf e9 42 f2 ff ff 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 b9

00 00 00 00 48 89 e5 41 57 41 56 41 55 41 54 53 48 83 ec 08 <44> 0f b7

47 58 0f b7 47 5a 0f b7 57 54 44 0f b7 76 08 66 41 39 c0

RSP: 0018:ffffbc3fcd88fcb0 EFLAGS: 00010282

RAX: ffff92a253260980 RBX: ffffbc3fe68b00a0 RCX: 0000000000000000

RDX: ffff928b5f659000 RSI: ffff928b5f659000 RDI: 0000000000000000

RBP: ffffbc3fcd88fce0 R08: ffff92b9dfc20580 R09: 0000000000000001

R10: 3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3d R11: 3d3d3d3d3d3d3d3d R12: 0000000000000000

R13: ffff928b2f0fa8c0 R14: ffff928b9be20050 R15: 000000000000003c

FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff92b9dfc00000(0000)

knlGS:0000000000000000

CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033

CR2: 0000000000000058 CR3: 000000011dd6a002 CR4: 00000000007706e0

DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000

DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400

PKRU: 55555554

Call Trace:

<TASK>

ixgbe_poll+0x103e/0x1280 [ixgbe]

? sched_clock_cpu+0x12/0xe0

__napi_poll+0x30/0x160

net_rx_action+0x11c/0x270

__do_softirq+0xda/0x2ee

run_ksoftirqd+0x2f/0x50

smpboot_thread_fn+0xb7/0x150

? sort_range+0x30/0x30

kthread+0x127/0x150

? set_kthread_struct+0x50/0x50

ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

</TASK>

I think this is how it happens:

Upon loading the first XDP program on a system with more than 64 CPUs,

ixgbe_xdp_locking_key is incremented in ixgbe_xdp_setup. However,

immediately after this, the rings are reconfigured by ixgbe_setup_tc.

ixgbe_setup_tc calls ixgbe_clear_interrupt_scheme which calls

ixgbe_free_q_vectors which calls ixgbe_free_q_vector in a loop.

ixgbe_free_q_vector decrements ixgbe_xdp_locking_key once per call if

it is non-zero. Commenting out the decrement in ixgbe_free_q_vector

stopped my system from panicing.

I suspect to make the original patch work, I would need to load an XDP

program and then replace it in order to get ixgbe_xdp_locking_key back

above 0 since ixgbe_setup_tc is only called when transitioning between

XDP and non-XDP ring configurations, while ixgbe_xdp_locking_key is

incremented every time ixgbe_xdp_setup is called.

Also, ixgbe_setup_tc can be called via ethtool --set-channels, so this

becomes another path to decrement ixgbe_xdp_locking_key to 0 on systems

with more than 64 CPUs.

Since ixgbe_xdp_locking_key only protects the XDP_TX path and is tied

to the number of CPUs present, there is no reason to disable it upon

unloading an XDP program. To avoid confusion, I have moved enabling

ixgbe_xdp_locking_key into ixgbe_sw_init, which is part of the probe path.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, 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:L/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: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • 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-2023-54090 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.3.0 up to 6.3.3)
  • unknown

Timeline and source

Published on 24 December 2025 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. 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-2023-54090 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity Critical
CVSS Score 9.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-12-24
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.3.0 6.3.3
unknown — —

Similar Threats

Exploit Protection

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