Linux Kernel up to 5.10.162/5.15.86/6.0.18/6.1.4 netfilter state issue

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.162/5.15.86/6.0.18/6.1.4. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component netfilter. Executing a manipulation can lead to state issue. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2023-53549. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.162/5.15.86/6.0.18/6.1.4. This vulnerability affects an unknown code block of the component netfilter. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a state issue vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-371. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: ipset: Rework long task execution when adding/deleting entries When adding/deleting large number of elements in one step in ipset, it can take a reasonable amount of time and can result in soft lockup errors. The patch 5f7b51bf09ba ("netfilter: ipset: Limit the maximal range of consecutive elements to add/delete") tried to fix it by limiting the max elements to process at all. However it was not enough, it is still possible that we get hung tasks. Lowering the limit is not reasonable, so the approach in this patch is as follows: rely on the method used at resizing sets and save the state when we reach a smaller internal batch limit, unlock/lock and proceed from the saved state. Thus we can avoid long continuous tasks and at the same time removed the limit to add/delete large number of elements in one step. The nfnl mutex is held during the whole operation which prevents one to issue other ipset commands in parallel.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2023-53549 since 10/04/2025. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 03/02/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 297598 (EulerOS 2.0 SP13 : kernel (EulerOS-SA-2026-1212)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.10.163, 5.15.87, 6.0.19 or 6.1.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ee756980e491c829ba0495bb420b7224a9ee26b2/a1e1521b463968b4eca7163f61fb6cc54d008061/24a828f5a54bdeca0846526860d72b3766c5fe95/8964cc36ba011dc0e1041131fa2e91fb4c2a811b/5e29dc36bd5e2166b834ceb19990d9e68a734d7d 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 (297598), EUVD (EUVD-2023-60059) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2194). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.162
• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7
• 5.15.8
• 5.15.9
• 5.15.10
• 5.15.11
• 5.15.12
• 5.15.13
• 5.15.14
• 5.15.15
• 5.15.16
• 5.15.17
• 5.15.18
• 5.15.19
• 5.15.20
• 5.15.21
• 5.15.22
• 5.15.23
• 5.15.24
• 5.15.25
• 5.15.26
• 5.15.27
• 5.15.28
• 5.15.29
• 5.15.30
• 5.15.31
• 5.15.32
• 5.15.33
• 5.15.34
• 5.15.35
• 5.15.36
• 5.15.37
• 5.15.38
• 5.15.39
• 5.15.40
• 5.15.41
• 5.15.42
• 5.15.43
• 5.15.44
• 5.15.45
• 5.15.46
• 5.15.47
• 5.15.48
• 5.15.49
• 5.15.50
• 5.15.51
• 5.15.52
• 5.15.53
• 5.15.54
• 5.15.55
• 5.15.56
• 5.15.57
• 5.15.58
• 5.15.59
• 5.15.60
• 5.15.61
• 5.15.62
• 5.15.63
• 5.15.64
• 5.15.65
• 5.15.66
• 5.15.67
• 5.15.68
• 5.15.69
• 5.15.70
• 5.15.71
• 5.15.72
• 5.15.73
• 5.15.74
• 5.15.75
• 5.15.76
• 5.15.77
• 5.15.78
• 5.15.79
• 5.15.80
• 5.15.81
• 5.15.82
• 5.15.83
• 5.15.84
• 5.15.85
• 5.15.86
• 6.0.0
• 6.0.1
• 6.0.2
• 6.0.3
• 6.0.4
• 6.0.5
• 6.0.6
• 6.0.7
• 6.0.8
• 6.0.9
• 6.0.10
• 6.0.11
• 6.0.12
• 6.0.13
• 6.0.14
• 6.0.15
• 6.0.16
• 6.0.17
• 6.0.18
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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