Vulnerability · Published Dec 24, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53999net/mlx5e: TC, Fix internal port memory leak

Unrated

In plain English

A 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 10% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS )–Not rated
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 89.8% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, Fix internal port memory leak The flow rule can be splited, and the extra post_act rules are added to post_act table. It's possible to trigger memleak when the rule forwards packets from internal port and over tunnel, in the case that, for example, CT 'new' state offload is allowed. As int_port object is assigned to the flow attribute of post_act rule, and its refcnt is incremented by mlx5e_tc_int_port_get(), but mlx5e_tc_int_port_put() is not called, the refcnt is never decremented, then int_port is never freed. The kmemleak reports the following error: unreferenced object 0xffff888128204b80 (size 64): comm "handler20", pid 50121, jiffies 4296973009 (age 642.932s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 19 00 00 00 03 f0 00 00 04 00 00 00 ................ 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff .wgA.....wgA.... backtrace: [<00000000e992680d>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0x120 [<000000009e945a98>] mlx5e_tc_int_port_get+0x3f3/0xe20 [mlx5_core] [<0000000035a537f0>] mlx5e_tc_add_fdb_flow+0x473/0xcf0 [mlx5_core] [<0000000070c2cec6>] __mlx5e_add_fdb_flow+0x7cf/0xe90 [mlx5_core] [<000000005cc84048>] mlx5e_configure_flower+0xd40/0x4c40 [mlx5_core] [<000000004f8a2031>] mlx5e_rep_indr_offload.isra.0+0x10e/0x1c0 [mlx5_core] [<000000007df797dc>] mlx5e_rep_indr_setup_tc_cb+0x90/0x130 [mlx5_core] [<0000000016c15cc3>] tc_setup_cb_add+0x1cf/0x410 [<00000000a63305b4>] fl_hw_replace_filter+0x38f/0x670 [cls_flower] [<000000008bc9e77c>] fl_change+0x1fd5/0x4430 [cls_flower] [<00000000e7f766e4>] tc_new_tfilter+0x867/0x2010 [<00000000e101c0ef>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fc/0x9f0 [<00000000e1111d44>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x12c/0x360 [<0000000082dd6c8b>] netlink_unicast+0x438/0x710 [<00000000fc568f70>] netlink_sendmsg+0x794/0xc50 [<0000000016e92590>] sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x190 So fix this by moving int_port cleanup code to the flow attribute free helper, which is used by all the attribute free cases.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.190-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53999
Debian:13linux6.4.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53999
Debian:14linux6.4.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 8300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213 – before 9079ef5fb26ff38ced50cc15199ce56a009b86058300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213 – before bc1918bac0f30e3f551ef5649b53062917db55fa8300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213 – before ac5da544a3c2047cbfd715acd9cec8380d7fe5c6
Linux Linux 5.18

References