CVE-2023-53685 json
tun: Fix memory leak for detached NAPI queue.
published 2025-10-07 13 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2025-31924
- cvss
- 5.5
- version 3.1, NVD
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.1%
- EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tun: Fix memory leak for detached NAPI queue.
syzkaller reported [0] memory leaks of sk and skb related to the TUN device with no repro, but we can reproduce it easily with:
struct ifreq ifr = {} int fd_tun, fd_tmp; char buf[4] = {};
fd_tun = openat(AT_FDCWD, "/dev/net/tun", O_WRONLY, 0); ifr.ifr_flags = IFF_TUN | IFF_NAPI | IFF_MULTI_QUEUE; ioctl(fd_tun, TUNSETIFF, &ifr);
ifr.ifr_flags = IFF_DETACH_QUEUE; ioctl(fd_tun, TUNSETQUEUE, &ifr);
fd_tmp = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_PACKET, 0); ifr.ifr_flags = IFF_UP; ioctl(fd_tmp, SIOCSIFFLAGS, &ifr);
write(fd_tun, buf, sizeof(buf)); close(fd_tun);
If we enable NAPI and multi-queue on a TUN device, we can put skb into tfile->sk.sk_write_queue after the queue is detached. We should prevent it by checking tfile->detached before queuing skb.
Note this must be done under tfile->sk.sk_write_queue.lock because write() and ioctl(IFF_DETACH_QUEUE) can run concurrently. Otherwise, there would be a small race window:
write() ioctl(IFF_DETACH_QUEUE) `- tun_get_user `- __tun_detach |- if (tfile->detached) |- tun_disable_queue | `-> false | `- tfile->detached = tun | `- tun_queue_purge |- spin_lock_bh(&queue->lock) `- __skb_queue_tail(queue, skb)
Another solution is to call tun_queue_purge() when closing and reattaching the detached queue, but it could paper over another problems. Also, we do the same kind of test for IFF_NAPI_FRAGS.
[0]: unreferenced object 0xffff88801edbc800 (size 2048): comm "syz-executor.1", pid 33269, jiffies 4295743834 (age 18.756s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 07 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...@............ backtrace: [<000000008c16ea3d>] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slab_common.c:965 [inline] [<000000008c16ea3d>] __kmalloc+0x4a/0x130 mm/slab_common.c:979 [<000000003addde56>] kmalloc include/linux/slab.h:563 [inline] [<000000003addde56>] sk_prot_alloc+0xef/0x1b0 net/core/sock.c:2035 [<000000003e20621f>] sk_alloc+0x36/0x2f0 net/core/sock.c:2088 [<0000000028e43843>] tun_chr_open+0x3d/0x190 drivers/net/tun.c:3438 [<000000001b0f1f28>] misc_open+0x1a6/0x1f0 drivers/char/misc.c:165 [<000000004376f706>] chrdev_open+0x111/0x300 fs/char_dev.c:414 [<00000000614d379f>] do_dentry_open+0x2f9/0x750 fs/open.c:920 [<000000008eb24774>] do_open fs/namei.c:3636 [inline] [<000000008eb24774>] path_openat+0x143f/0x1a30 fs/namei.c:3791 [<00000000955077b5>] do_filp_open+0xce/0x1c0 fs/namei.c:3818 [<00000000b78973b0>] do_sys_openat2+0xf0/0x260 fs/open.c:1356 [<00000000057be699>] do_sys_open fs/open.c:1372 [inline] [<00000000057be699>] __do_sys_openat fs/open.c:1388 [inline] [<00000000057be699>] __se_sys_openat fs/open.c:1383 [inline] [<00000000057be699>] __x64_sys_openat+0x83/0xf0 fs/open.c:1383 [<00000000a7d2182d>] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] [<00000000a7d2182d>] do_syscall_64+0x3c/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 [<000000004cc4e8c4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
unreferenced object 0xffff88802f671700 (size 240): comm "syz-executor.1", pid 33269, jiffies 4295743854 (age 18.736s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 68 c9 db 1e 80 88 ff ff 68 c9 db 1e 80 88 ff ff h.......h....... 00 c0 7b 2f 80 88 ff ff 00 c8 db 1e 80 88 ff ff ..{/............ backtrace: [<00000000e9d9fdb6>] __alloc_skb+0x223/0x250 net/core/skbuff.c:644 [<000000002c3e4e0b>] alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1288 [inline] [<000000002c3e4e0b>] alloc_skb_with_frags+0x6f/0x350 net/core/skbuff.c:6378 [<00000000825f98d7>] sock_alloc_send_pskb+0x3ac/0x3e0 net/core/sock.c:2729 [<00000000e9eb3df3>] tun_alloc_skb drivers/net/tun.c:1529 [inline] [< ---truncated---
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 6.1.30, 6.3.4, 6.4
- linux Debian 12 6.1.37-1
- linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.3.7-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53685
- kernel-syms SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 4.12.14-122.293.1
- kernel-source SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 4.12.14-122.293.1
- kernel-default SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS, SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.293.1
- kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP5_Update_77 SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 1-8.3.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:0473-1
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-2023-53685 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: tun: Fix memory leak for detached NAPI queue
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 moreaffected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
-
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 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 moreaffected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernelnot 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
0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% 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
- CVE List CVE-2023-53685
- NVD CVE-2023-53685
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