CVE-2023-53585

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Last Modified: UTC

Low Low Impact What does this mean?
5.5 CVSS v3 Base Score

Description

A reference counting flaw was found in the Linux kernel's BPF socket assignment helper when handling unhashed UDP sockets. When a BPF program assigns an unhashed UDP socket to a packet, the function increments the socket reference count assuming SOCK_RCU_FREE isn't set. However, subsequent bind or connect operations set this flag, causing the packet receive path to skip the reference decrement. This creates a permanent reference leak that prevents socket cleanup, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service.

Statement

The bpf_sk_assign helper allows BPF programs to redirect packets to specific sockets, a powerful feature for custom load balancing or packet steering. The helper was designed around an assumption: SOCK_RCU_FREE (which controls whether sockets can be freed after an RCU grace period without explicit reference counting) remains stable throughout the packet's lifetime. For most sockets this is true—the flag is set at socket creation. UDP sockets are different: they're created without SOCK_RCU_FREE, and this flag is only added later when they're bound to a port via udp_lib_get_port. Originally, BPF couldn't access unhashed (unbound) UDP sockets, so this wasn't an issue. That changed when sockmap restrictions were lifted. Now the following sequence creates a leak: put an unbound UDP socket in a sockmap, pull it out and bpf_sk_assign it (incrementing refcount because SOCK_RCU_FREE isn't set), bind the socket (setting SOCK_RCU_FREE), then when the packet reaches tcp_v4_rcv, skb_steal_sock sees SOCK_RCU_FREE and skips the sock_put. The fix rejects unhashed sockets in bpf_sk_assign.

Additional Information

External References

Content from www.cve.org is not included.https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53585

Content from nvd.nist.gov is not included.https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53585

Content from lore.kernel.org is not included.https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025100425-CVE-2023-53585-b855@gregkh/T

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Products / Services Components State Errata
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel-rt Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel Fixed RHSA-2020:4431
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown Red Hat NVD
CVSS v3 Base Score 5.5 5.5
Attack Vector Local Local
Attack Complexity Low Low
Privileges Required Low Low
User Interaction None None
Scope Unchanged Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact None None
Integrity Impact None None
Availability Impact High High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.