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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2023-53190 json

vxlan: Fix memory leaks in error path

published 2025-09-15 13 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2023-59786

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vxlan: Fix memory leaks in error path

The memory allocated by vxlan_vnigroup_init() is not freed in the error path, leading to memory leaks [1]. Fix by calling vxlan_vnigroup_uninit() in the error path.

The leaks can be reproduced by annotating gro_cells_init() with ALLOW_ERROR_INJECTION() and then running:

# echo "100" > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/probability # echo "1" > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/times # echo "gro_cells_init" > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/inject # printf %#x -12 > /sys/kernel/debug/fail_function/gro_cells_init/retval # ip link add name vxlan0 type vxlan dstport 4789 external vnifilter RTNETLINK answers: Cannot allocate memory

[1] unreferenced object 0xffff88810db84a00 (size 512): comm "ip", pid 330, jiffies 4295010045 (age 66.016s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): f8 d5 76 0e 81 88 ff ff 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 ..v............. 03 00 04 00 48 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 04 00 01 00 ....H........... backtrace: [<ffffffff81a3097a>] kmalloc_trace+0x2a/0x60 [<ffffffff82f049fc>] vxlan_vnigroup_init+0x4c/0x160 [<ffffffff82ecd69e>] vxlan_init+0x1ae/0x280 [<ffffffff836858ca>] register_netdevice+0x57a/0x16d0 [<ffffffff82ef67b7>] __vxlan_dev_create+0x7c7/0xa50 [<ffffffff82ef6ce6>] vxlan_newlink+0xd6/0x130 [<ffffffff836d02ab>] __rtnl_newlink+0x112b/0x18a0 [<ffffffff836d0a8c>] rtnl_newlink+0x6c/0xa0 [<ffffffff836c0ddf>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x43f/0xd40 [<ffffffff83908ce0>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x170/0x440 [<ffffffff839066af>] netlink_unicast+0x53f/0x810 [<ffffffff839072d8>] netlink_sendmsg+0x958/0xe70 [<ffffffff835c319f>] ____sys_sendmsg+0x78f/0xa90 [<ffffffff835cd6da>] ___sys_sendmsg+0x13a/0x1e0 [<ffffffff835cd94c>] __sys_sendmsg+0x11c/0x1f0 [<ffffffff8424da78>] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x80 unreferenced object 0xffff88810e76d5f8 (size 192): comm "ip", pid 330, jiffies 4295010045 (age 66.016s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 db e1 4f e7 00 00 00 00 ..........O..... 08 d6 76 0e 81 88 ff ff 08 d6 76 0e 81 88 ff ff ..v.......v..... backtrace: [<ffffffff81a3162e>] __kmalloc_node+0x4e/0x90 [<ffffffff81a0e166>] kvmalloc_node+0xa6/0x1f0 [<ffffffff8276e1a3>] bucket_table_alloc.isra.0+0x83/0x460 [<ffffffff8276f18b>] rhashtable_init+0x43b/0x7c0 [<ffffffff82f04a1c>] vxlan_vnigroup_init+0x6c/0x160 [<ffffffff82ecd69e>] vxlan_init+0x1ae/0x280 [<ffffffff836858ca>] register_netdevice+0x57a/0x16d0 [<ffffffff82ef67b7>] __vxlan_dev_create+0x7c7/0xa50 [<ffffffff82ef6ce6>] vxlan_newlink+0xd6/0x130 [<ffffffff836d02ab>] __rtnl_newlink+0x112b/0x18a0 [<ffffffff836d0a8c>] rtnl_newlink+0x6c/0xa0 [<ffffffff836c0ddf>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x43f/0xd40 [<ffffffff83908ce0>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x170/0x440 [<ffffffff839066af>] netlink_unicast+0x53f/0x810 [<ffffffff839072d8>] netlink_sendmsg+0x958/0xe70 [<ffffffff835c319f>] ____sys_sendmsg+0x78f/0xa90

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.0.19, 6.1.5, 6.2
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.1.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53190

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-2023-53190 updated cvss 4.1

kernel: vxlan: Fix memory leaks in error path

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    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
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
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.