Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7 veth pskb_expand_head use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7. This affects the function pskb_expand_head of the component veth. This manipulation causes use after free. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53107. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function pskb_expand_head of the component veth. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: veth: Fix use after free in XDP_REDIRECT Commit 718a18a0c8a6 ("veth: Rework veth_xdp_rcv_skb in order to accept non-linear skb") introduced a bug where it tried to use pskb_expand_head() if the headroom was less than XDP_PACKET_HEADROOM. This however uses kmalloc to expand the head, which will later allow consume_skb() to free the skb while is it still in use by AF_XDP. Previously if the headroom was less than XDP_PACKET_HEADROOM we continued on to allocate a new skb from pages so this restores that behavior. BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __xsk_rcv+0x18d/0x2c0 Read of size 78 at addr ffff888976250154 by task napi/iconduit-g/148640 CPU: 5 PID: 148640 Comm: napi/iconduit-g Kdump: loaded Tainted: G O 6.1.4-cloudflare-kasan-2023.1.2 #1 Hardware name: Quanta Computer Inc. QuantaPlex T41S-2U/S2S-MB, BIOS S2S_3B10.03 06/21/2018 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x48 print_report+0x170/0x473 ? __xsk_rcv+0x18d/0x2c0 kasan_report+0xad/0x130 ? __xsk_rcv+0x18d/0x2c0 kasan_check_range+0x149/0x1a0 memcpy+0x20/0x60 __xsk_rcv+0x18d/0x2c0 __xsk_map_redirect+0x1f3/0x490 ? veth_xdp_rcv_skb+0x89c/0x1ba0 [veth] xdp_do_redirect+0x5ca/0xd60 veth_xdp_rcv_skb+0x935/0x1ba0 [veth] ? __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x671/0x920 ? veth_xdp+0x670/0x670 [veth] veth_xdp_rcv+0x304/0xa20 [veth] ? do_xdp_generic+0x150/0x150 ? veth_xdp_rcv_one+0xde0/0xde0 [veth] ? _raw_spin_lock_bh+0xe0/0xe0 ? newidle_balance+0x887/0xe30 ? __perf_event_task_sched_in+0xdb/0x800 veth_poll+0x139/0x571 [veth] ? veth_xdp_rcv+0xa20/0xa20 [veth] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x39/0x70 ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x17e/0x7d0 ? __switch_to+0x5cf/0x1070 ? __schedule+0x95b/0x2640 ? io_schedule_timeout+0x160/0x160 __napi_poll+0xa1/0x440 napi_threaded_poll+0x3d1/0x460 ? __napi_poll+0x440/0x440 ? __kthread_parkme+0xc6/0x1f0 ? __napi_poll+0x440/0x440 kthread+0x2a2/0x340 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 </TASK> Freed by task 148640: kasan_save_stack+0x23/0x50 kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x2a/0x40 ____kasan_slab_free+0x169/0x1d0 slab_free_freelist_hook+0xd2/0x190 __kmem_cache_free+0x1a1/0x2f0 skb_release_data+0x449/0x600 consume_skb+0x9f/0x1c0 veth_xdp_rcv_skb+0x89c/0x1ba0 [veth] veth_xdp_rcv+0x304/0xa20 [veth] veth_poll+0x139/0x571 [veth] __napi_poll+0xa1/0x440 napi_threaded_poll+0x3d1/0x460 kthread+0x2a2/0x340 ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888976250000 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-2k of size 2048 The buggy address is located 340 bytes inside of 2048-byte region [ffff888976250000, ffff888976250800) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page:00000000ae18262a refcount:2 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x976250 head:00000000ae18262a order:3 compound_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 flags: 0x2ffff800010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1ffff) raw: 002ffff800010200 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 ffff88810004cf00 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000080080008 00000002ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888976250000: fa fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888976250080: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb > ffff888976250100: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff888976250180: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff888976250200: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53107 since 05/02/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 11/10/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237244 (RHEL 9 : kernel (RHSA-2025:8133)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.21 or 6.2.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 717d20710596b5b26595ede454d1105fa176f4a4/6e755b56896df48b0fae0db275e148f8d8aa7d6f/7c10131803e45269ddc6c817f19ed649110f3cae is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (237244). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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