{
  "threat_severity" : "Moderate",
  "public_date" : "2025-10-04T00:00:00Z",
  "bugzilla" : {
    "description" : "kernel: netfilter: ipset: Rework long task execution when adding/deleting entries",
    "id" : "2401491",
    "url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2401491"
  },
  "cvss3" : {
    "cvss3_base_score" : "5.5",
    "cvss3_scoring_vector" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
    "status" : "verified"
  },
  "cwe" : "CWE-1050",
  "details" : [ "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\nnetfilter: ipset: Rework long task execution when adding/deleting entries\nWhen adding/deleting large number of elements in one step in ipset, it can\ntake a reasonable amount of time and can result in soft lockup errors. The\npatch 5f7b51bf09ba (\"netfilter: ipset: Limit the maximal range of\nconsecutive elements to add/delete\") tried to fix it by limiting the max\nelements to process at all. However it was not enough, it is still possible\nthat we get hung tasks. Lowering the limit is not reasonable, so the\napproach in this patch is as follows: rely on the method used at resizing\nsets and save the state when we reach a smaller internal batch limit,\nunlock/lock and proceed from the saved state. Thus we can avoid long\ncontinuous tasks and at the same time removed the limit to add/delete large\nnumber of elements in one step.\nThe nfnl mutex is held during the whole operation which prevents one to\nissue other ipset commands in parallel.", "An uncontrolled resource consumption flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netfilter ipset subsystem when processing large batch operations. A local user with CAP_NET_ADMIN capability can trigger this issue by adding or deleting a large number of ipset entries in a single operation, causing the kernel to execute long-running tasks without yielding. This results in soft lockup conditions and denial of service through system unresponsiveness." ],
  "statement" : "The ipset code processes batch add/delete operations in a tight loop while holding the nfnl mutex. When users specify a large range of IP addresses or ports to add to or remove from a set, the kernel can spend extended periods (potentially seconds) without scheduling, leading to soft lockup detector warnings and system unresponsiveness. Previous attempts to limit the batch size were insufficient—the limits were still too high to prevent hung task conditions on slower systems. Exploitation requires CAP_NET_ADMIN capability, which is typically restricted to root or containers with explicit network administration privileges.",
  "affected_release" : [ {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8",
    "release_date" : "2023-05-16T00:00:00Z",
    "advisory" : "RHSA-2023:2951",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8",
    "package" : "kernel-0:4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
    "release_date" : "2023-11-07T00:00:00Z",
    "advisory" : "RHSA-2023:6583",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9",
    "package" : "kernel-0:5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
    "release_date" : "2023-11-07T00:00:00Z",
    "advisory" : "RHSA-2023:6583",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9",
    "package" : "kernel-0:5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3"
  } ],
  "package_state" : [ {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6",
    "fix_state" : "Out of support scope",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
    "fix_state" : "Not affected",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8",
    "fix_state" : "Fix deferred",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"
  }, {
    "product_name" : "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
    "fix_state" : "Fix deferred",
    "package_name" : "kernel-rt",
    "cpe" : "cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9"
  } ],
  "references" : [ "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53549\nhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53549\nhttps://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025100446-CVE-2023-53549-9c74@gregkh/T" ],
  "name" : "CVE-2023-53549",
  "csaw" : false
}