Vulnerability · Published Oct 22, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53698xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 6% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.4% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path Fix a refcount underflow problem reported by syzbot that can happen when a system is running out of memory. If xp_alloc_tx_descs() fails, and it can only fail due to not having enough memory, then the error path is triggered. In this error path, the refcount of the pool is decremented as it has incremented before. However, the reference to the pool in the socket was not nulled. This means that when the socket is closed later, the socket teardown logic will think that there is a pool attached to the socket and try to decrease the refcount again, leading to a refcount underflow. I chose this fix as it involved adding just a single line. Another option would have been to move xp_get_pool() and the assignment of xs->pool to after the if-statement and using xs_umem->pool instead of xs->pool in the whole if-statement resulting in somewhat simpler code, but this would have led to much more churn in the code base perhaps making it harder to backport.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.52-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53698
Debian:13linux6.4.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53698
Debian:14linux6.4.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-91.101UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1051.56UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1053.61UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1053.61.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1048.56UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1048.53UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1034.40UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1044.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1046.52UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1048.53UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-91.101UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1042.42UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra5.15.0-1020.20UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igx5.15.0-1007.7UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1049.55UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1044.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmp5.15.0-1027.31UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53698

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux f7019562f142bc041f9cde63af338d1886585923 – before 789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e – before 15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e – before 3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e – before 85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d9f0c8a9d4ef1b9ebee0e4ac2495fe790727044aa5.15.47 – before 5.15.1275.17.15 – before 5.18
Linux Linux 5.18

References