CVE-2023-53836
NoneCVSS
—
EPSS
0.2%
Published
Dec 9, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A flaw in the Linux kernel's networking code can let attackers crash the machine or potentially take control when certain advanced socket features are in use.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Local User
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Impact
- Privilege Gain
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Use After Free
- Remediation
- Upgrade
- Effort
- Medium
- Patch risk
- Low
What it actually does
Race in sk_psock_backlog allows skb_peek/sk_psock_skb_ingress to retain a reference to an skb after userspace recvmsg has already called consume_skb, resulting in use-after-free on subsequent skb_dequeue.
Why it matters to the business
Systems running affected Linux kernels may experience kernel panics or potential privilege escalation during high-volume sockmap/BPF workloads, leading to unplanned downtime and increased risk on servers or containers using BPF socket redirection.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker configures a BPF sockmap program, sends ingress traffic into the backlog queue, and concurrently issues recvmsg operations from userspace; the timing window lets skb_dequeue execute after the skb has already been freed, triggering the UAF.
How to fix it
Upgrade the Linux kernel to a version containing commit 65ad600b9bde68d2d28709943ab00b51ca8f0a1d or later; rebuild and reboot with the patched kernel. No backports or workarounds are provided.
How to confirm the fix worked
Verify the running kernel git commit or package version includes 65ad600b9bde68d2d28709943ab00b51ca8f0a1d; re-run the sockmap_listen test suite and confirm absence of the general protection fault in sk_psock_backlog.
Typical attack path
- Load BPF program that attaches to sockmap
- Establish ingress_skb queue with sk_psock
- Trigger concurrent recvmsg while backlog worker runs
- skb_dequeue dereferences already-freed skb
How to detect it
Search kernel logs and dmesg for general protection faults, sk_psock_backlog workqueue entries, and RIP addresses near skb_dequeue; correlate with processes using BPF sockmap or high recvmsg rates.
- sk_psock_backlog
- skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80
- Workqueue: events sk_psock_backlog
What your security team should do
- Prioritize kernel upgrade on all systems exposing BPF sockmap functionality
- Monitor kernel logs for sk_psock_backlog and skb_dequeue faults until patched
- Limit untrusted BPF program loading via LSM or capability restrictions
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, sockmap: Fix skb refcnt race after locking changes There is a race where skb's from the sk_psock_backlog can be referenced after userspace side has already skb_consumed() the sk_buff and its refcnt dropped to zer0 causing use after free. The flow is the following: while ((skb = skb_peek(&psock->ingress_skb)) sk_psock_handle_Skb(psock, skb, ..., ingress) if (!ingress) ... sk_psock_skb_ingress sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue(skb) msg->skb = skb sk_psock_queue_msg(psock, msg) skb_dequeue(&psock->ingress_skb) The sk_psock_queue_msg() puts the msg on the ingress_msg queue. This is what the application reads when recvmsg() is called. An application can read this anytime after the msg is placed on the queue. The recvmsg hook will also read msg->skb and then after user space reads the msg will call consume_skb(skb) on it effectively free'ing it. But, the race is in above where backlog queue still has a reference to the skb and calls skb_dequeue(). If the skb_dequeue happens after the user reads and free's the skb we have a use after free. The !ingress case does not suffer from this problem because it uses sendmsg_*(sk, msg) which does not pass the sk_buff further down the stack. The following splat was observed with 'test_progs -t sockmap_listen': [ 1022.710250][ T2556] general protection fault, ... [...] [ 1022.712830][ T2556] Workqueue: events sk_psock_backlog [ 1022.713262][ T2556] RIP: 0010:skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80 [ 1022.713653][ T2556] Code: ... [...] [ 1022.720699][ T2556] Call Trace: [ 1022.720984][ T2556] <TASK> [ 1022.721254][ T2556] ? die_addr+0x32/0x80^M [ 1022.721589][ T2556] ? exc_general_protection+0x25a/0x4b0 [ 1022.722026][ T2556] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30 [ 1022.722489][ T2556] ? skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80 [ 1022.722854][ T2556] sk_psock_backlog+0x27a/0x300 [ 1022.723243][ T2556] process_one_work+0x2a7/0x5b0 [ 1022.723633][ T2556] worker_thread+0x4f/0x3a0 [ 1022.723998][ T2556] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.724386][ T2556] kthread+0xfd/0x130 [ 1022.724709][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.725066][ T2556] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 [ 1022.725409][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.725799][ T2556] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 [ 1022.726201][ T2556] </TASK> To fix we add an skb_get() before passing the skb to be enqueued in the engress queue. This bumps the skb->users refcnt so that consume_skb() and kfree_skb will not immediately free the sk_buff. With this we can be sure the skb is still around when we do the dequeue. Then we just need to decrement the refcnt or free the skb in the backlog case which we do by calling kfree_skb() on the ingress case as well as the sendmsg case. Before locking change from fixes tag we had the sock locked so we couldn't race with user and there was no issue here.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Kernel | 5.13.0 | 5.15.189 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_19 | 0 | 1-150600.13.3.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
Related vulnerabilities
- CVE-2026-23226 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: add chann_lock… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23225 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched/mmcid: Don't… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23230 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: split… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23224 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: erofs: fix UAF issue… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23227 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/exynos: vidi: use… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23223 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfs: fix UAF in… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23228 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: server: fix leak… Also affects Kernel
- CVE-2026-23229 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: virtio - Add… Also affects Kernel