Linux Kernel up to 6.1.30/6.3.4 mlx5 memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.30/6.3.4. It has been declared as critical. This affects an unknown part of the component mlx5. Such manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-53347. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.30/6.3.4. Affected by this issue is some unknown processing of the component mlx5. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: Handle pairing of E-switch via uplink un/load APIs In case user switch a device from switchdev mode to legacy mode, mlx5 first unpair the E-switch and afterwards unload the uplink vport. From the other hand, in case user remove or reload a device, mlx5 first unload the uplink vport and afterwards unpair the E-switch. The latter is causing a bug[1], hence, handle pairing of E-switch as part of uplink un/load APIs. [1] In case VF_LAG is used, every tc fdb flow is duplicated to the peer esw. However, the original esw keeps a pointer to this duplicated flow, not the peer esw. e.g.: if user create tc fdb flow over esw0, the flow is duplicated over esw1, in FW/HW, but in SW, esw0 keeps a pointer to the duplicated flow. During module unload while a peer tc fdb flow is still offloaded, in case the first device to be removed is the peer device (esw1 in the example above), the peer net-dev is destroyed, and so the mlx5e_priv is memset to 0. Afterwards, the peer device is trying to unpair himself from the original device (esw0 in the example above). Unpair API invoke the original device to clear peer flow from its eswitch (esw0), but the peer flow, which is stored over the original eswitch (esw0), is trying to use the peer mlx5e_priv, which is memset to 0 and result in bellow kernel-oops. [ 157.964081 ] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 000000000002ce60 [ 157.964662 ] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 157.965123 ] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 157.965582 ] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 157.965866 ] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP [ 157.967670 ] RIP: 0010:mlx5e_tc_del_fdb_flow+0x48/0x460 [mlx5_core] [ 157.976164 ] Call Trace: [ 157.976437 ] <TASK> [ 157.976690 ] __mlx5e_tc_del_fdb_peer_flow+0xe6/0x100 [mlx5_core] [ 157.977230 ] mlx5e_tc_clean_fdb_peer_flows+0x67/0x90 [mlx5_core] [ 157.977767 ] mlx5_esw_offloads_unpair+0x2d/0x1e0 [mlx5_core] [ 157.984653 ] mlx5_esw_offloads_devcom_event+0xbf/0x130 [mlx5_core] [ 157.985212 ] mlx5_devcom_send_event+0xa3/0xb0 [mlx5_core] [ 157.985714 ] esw_offloads_disable+0x5a/0x110 [mlx5_core] [ 157.986209 ] mlx5_eswitch_disable_locked+0x152/0x170 [mlx5_core] [ 157.986757 ] mlx5_eswitch_disable+0x51/0x80 [mlx5_core] [ 157.987248 ] mlx5_unload+0x2a/0xb0 [mlx5_core] [ 157.987678 ] mlx5_uninit_one+0x5f/0xd0 [mlx5_core] [ 157.988127 ] remove_one+0x64/0xe0 [mlx5_core] [ 157.988549 ] pci_device_remove+0x31/0xa0 [ 157.988933 ] device_release_driver_internal+0x18f/0x1f0 [ 157.989402 ] driver_detach+0x3f/0x80 [ 157.989754 ] bus_remove_driver+0x70/0xf0 [ 157.990129 ] pci_unregister_driver+0x34/0x90 [ 157.990537 ] mlx5_cleanup+0xc/0x1c [mlx5_core] [ 157.990972 ] __x64_sys_delete_module+0x15a/0x250 [ 157.991398 ] ? exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0xea/0x110 [ 157.991840 ] do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x90 [ 157.992198 ] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-53347 since 09/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 12/27/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265618 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53347), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.31 or 6.3.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b17294e7aa8c39dbb9c3e28e2d1983c88b94b387/10cbfecc0f99f579fb170feee866c9efaab7ee47/2be5bd42a5bba1a05daedc86cf0e248210009669 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 databases at Tenable (265618) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2087). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

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
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1
• 6.3.2
• 6.3.3
• 6.3.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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