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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2023-46838 json

Linux: netback processing of zero-length transmit fragment

published 2024-01-29 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-51004

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.2%
EPSS 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Transmit requests in Xen's virtual network protocol can consist of multiple parts. While not really useful, except for the initial part any of them may be of zero length, i.e. carry no data at all. Besides a certain initial portion of the to be transferred data, these parts are directly translated into what Linux calls SKB fragments. Such converted request parts can, when for a particular SKB they are all of length zero, lead to a de-reference of NULL in core networking code.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.19.306, 5.4.268, 5.10.209, 5.15.148, 6.1.75, 6.6.14, 6.7.2
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.76-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.6.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-46838

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-176.196
  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-102.112
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1122.132
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1057.63
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1126.135
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1055.63
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1054.59
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1069.74

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-46838

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP5, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 +4 more 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.49.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:0516-1SUSE-SU-2024:0515-1SUSE-SU-2024:0514-1SUSE-SU-2024:0484-1SUSE-SU-2024:0483-1SUSE-SU-2024:0478-1

  • linux-lts Alpine 3.17, Alpine 3.16 5.15.147-r1
  • linux-lts Alpine 3.18 6.1.74-r0
  • linux-lts Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22, Alpine 3.21 6.6.13-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-46838

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.15.153.1-1
  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.35.1-4

azure linux advisories AZL-34016AZL-34863

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-46838 updated cvss 7.5

xen: netback processing of zero-length transmit fragment

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
17 mo ago

Exploit prediction

1.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.