Vulnerability · Published Dec 24, 2025 · Assigned by Linux
CVE-2023-54149net: dsa: avoid suspicious RCU usage for synced VLAN-aware MAC addresses
High 7.5
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 0.3% (higher than 17% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: avoid suspicious RCU usage for synced VLAN-aware MAC addresses When using the felix driver (the only one which supports UC filtering and MC filtering) as a DSA master for a random other DSA switch, one can see the following stack trace when the downstream switch ports join a VLAN-aware bridge: ============================= WARNING: suspicious RCU usage ----------------------------- net/8021q/vlan_core.c:238 suspicious rcu_dereference_protected() usage! stack backtrace: Workqueue: dsa_ordered dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work Call trace: lockdep_rcu_suspicious+0x170/0x210 vlan_for_each+0x8c/0x188 dsa_slave_sync_uc+0x128/0x178 __hw_addr_sync_dev+0x138/0x158 dsa_slave_set_rx_mode+0x58/0x70 __dev_set_rx_mode+0x88/0xa8 dev_uc_add+0x74/0xa0 dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add+0xec/0x180 dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work+0x7c/0x1c8 process_one_work+0x290/0x568 What it's saying is that vlan_for_each() expects rtnl_lock() context and it's not getting it, when it's called from the DSA master's ndo_set_rx_mode(). The caller of that - dsa_slave_set_rx_mode() - is the slave DSA interface's dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add() which comes from the deferred dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work(). We went to great lengths to avoid the rtnl_lock() context in that call path in commit 0faf890fc519 ("net: dsa: drop rtnl_lock from dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work"), and calling rtnl_lock() is simply not an option due to the possibility of deadlocking when calling dsa_flush_workqueue() from the call paths that do hold rtnl_lock() - basically all of them. So, when the DSA master calls vlan_for_each() from its ndo_set_rx_mode(), the state of the 8021q driver on this device is really not protected from concurrent access by anything. Looking at net/8021q/, I don't think that vlan_info->vid_list was particularly designed with RCU traversal in mind, so introducing an RCU read-side form of vlan_for_each() - vlan_for_each_rcu() - won't be so easy, and it also wouldn't be exactly what we need anyway. In general I believe that the solution isn't in net/8021q/ anyway; vlan_for_each() is not cut out for this task. DSA doesn't need rtnl_lock() to be held per se - since it's not a netdev state change that we're blocking, but rather, just concurrent additions/removals to a VLAN list. We don't even need sleepable context - the callback of vlan_for_each() just schedules deferred work. The proposed escape is to remove the dependency on vlan_for_each() and to open-code a non-sleepable, rtnl-free alternative to that, based on copies of the VLAN list modified from .ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid() and .ndo_vlan_rx_kill_vid().
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:13 | linux | 6.4.4-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Debian:14 | linux | 6.4.4-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-allwinner-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iot-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-5.17 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.0 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.1 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.11 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.8 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oracle-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-riscv-6.14 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.5 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54149 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 64fdc5f341db01200e33105265d4b8450122a82e – before 3948c69b3837fec2ee5a90fbc911c343199be0ac64fdc5f341db01200e33105265d4b8450122a82e – before 3f9e79f31e51b7d5bf95c617540deb6cf2816a3f64fdc5f341db01200e33105265d4b8450122a82e – before d06f925f13976ab82167c93467c70a337a0a3cda2daf967a24334865e51520e55190a646dd480cd76.2.10 – before 6.3 |
| Linux | Linux | 6.3 |