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Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2023-53731 json

netlink: fix potential deadlock in netlink_set_err()

published 2025-10-22 12 mo ago modified 2026-10-28 11 d ago also EUVD-2023-59997

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 14%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

netlink: fix potential deadlock in netlink_set_err()

syzbot reported a possible deadlock in netlink_set_err() [1]

A similar issue was fixed in commit 1d482e666b8e ("netlink: disable IRQs for netlink_lock_table()") in netlink_lock_table()

This patch adds IRQ safety to netlink_set_err() and __netlink_diag_dump() which were not covered by cited commit.

[1]

WARNING: possible irq lock inversion dependency detected 6.4.0-rc6-syzkaller-00240-g4e9f0ec38852 #0 Not tainted

syz-executor.2/23011 just changed the state of lock: ffffffff8e1a7a58 (nl_table_lock){.+.?}-{2:2}, at: netlink_set_err+0x2e/0x3a0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1612 but this lock was taken by another, SOFTIRQ-safe lock in the past: (&local->queue_stop_reason_lock){..-.}-{2:2}

and interrupts could create inverse lock ordering between them.

other info that might help us debug this: Possible interrupt unsafe locking scenario:

CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(nl_table_lock); local_irq_disable(); lock(&local->queue_stop_reason_lock); lock(nl_table_lock); <Interrupt> lock(&local->queue_stop_reason_lock);

*** DEADLOCK ***

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.5, 4.10, 4.14.322, 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.13, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4, 6.5
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.52-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.4.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53731

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-166.183
  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-86.96
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1113.123
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1047.52
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1117.126
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.52
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.49
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1060.65

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53731

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

  • kernel RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:9315

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:4301-1SUSE-SU-2025:21052-1SUSE-SU-2025:21064-1SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1SUSE-SU-2025:4140-1SUSE-SU-2025:4132-1

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-2023-53731 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: Kernel: Denial of Service due to a Netlink subsystem deadlock

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: 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 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, rtla 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-tools 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, python3-perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:9315
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-cross-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
    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

Exploit prediction

0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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