Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4 mlx5 use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component mlx5. This manipulation causes use after free. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2023-53398. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.17/6.2.4. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code of the component mlx5. 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: mlx5: fix possible ptp queue fifo use-after-free Fifo indexes are not checked during pop operations and it leads to potential use-after-free when poping from empty queue. Such case was possible during re-sync action. WARN_ON_ONCE covers future cases. There were out-of-order cqe spotted which lead to drain of the queue and use-after-free because of lack of fifo pointers check. Special check and counter are added to avoid resync operation if SKB could not exist in the fifo because of OOO cqe (skb_id must be between consumer and producer index).

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53398 since 09/17/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 12/13/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265612 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53398), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.18 or 6.2.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 52e6e7a0bc04c85012a9251c7cf2d444a77eb966/6afdedc4e66e3846ce497744f01b95c34bf39d21/3a50cf1e8e5157b82268eee7e330dbe5736a0948 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 (265612) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2092). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

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

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
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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

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