Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2023-54149

None

CVSS

—

EPSS

0.3%

Published

Dec 24, 2025

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A flaw in the Linux kernel's network switch handling can cause warnings or instability when certain network setups with VLANs are used, so systems should be updated to the fixed version to keep networks stable.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Low Privilege
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Denial Of Service
Component
OS kernel
Class
Race Condition
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

The vulnerability triggers a suspicious RCU usage warning and potential unprotected concurrent access to VLAN list state when a DSA master interface calls vlan_for_each() from its ndo_set_rx_mode() path during deferred switchdev event work, violating expected rtnl_lock context requirements.

Why it matters to the business

Systems running affected Linux kernel versions with DSA switches may experience kernel warnings, instability, or incorrect unicast/multicast filtering behavior when VLAN-aware bridges are used, increasing operational risk and requiring urgent patching to maintain network reliability.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with local access configures a DSA slave interface attached to a VLAN-aware bridge on a system using the felix DSA driver as master; this triggers dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work which calls into dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add and ultimately ndo_set_rx_mode without proper locking, exposing the race condition during vlan_for_each traversal.

How to fix it

Update to a fixed kernel version containing commit 3948c69b3837fec2ee5a90fbc911c343199be0ac (or equivalent) which replaces the vlan_for_each dependency with an open-coded non-sleepable rtnl-free alternative based on VLAN list copies from ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid and ndo_vlan_rx_kill_vid.

How to confirm the fix worked

Verify the presence of the fix commit in the running kernel source, confirm absence of the WARNING: suspicious RCU usage stack trace during VLAN-aware bridge operations, and test bridge join scenarios with DSA masters.

Typical attack path

  1. Obtain local access to a Linux system using DSA networking with felix driver as master
  2. Attach a downstream DSA switch and join its ports to a VLAN-aware bridge
  3. Trigger switchdev events that schedule dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work
  4. Cause concurrent access to VLAN state during ndo_set_rx_mode execution

How to detect it

Search kernel logs for the exact stack trace containing lockdep_rcu_suspicious, vlan_for_each, dsa_slave_sync_uc, and dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work; inspect dmesg or journalctl output around DSA bridge configuration events.

  • WARNING: suspicious RCU usage
  • net/8021q/vlan_core.c:238 suspicious rcu_dereference_protected() usage!
  • dsa_slave_switchdev_event_work
  • dsa_port_bridge_host_fdb_add

What your security team should do

  • Prioritize kernel upgrades to versions containing the listed fix commit on all systems using DSA networking
  • Monitor for RCU warnings in kernel logs on DSA-enabled hosts
  • Test DSA bridge configurations in staging before production deployment

The record

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

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Linux Kernel 6.3.0 6.3.13
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