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Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2023-53809 json

l2tp: Avoid possible recursive deadlock in l2tp_tunnel_register()

published 2025-12-09 11 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-60097

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 8%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

l2tp: Avoid possible recursive deadlock in l2tp_tunnel_register()

When a file descriptor of pppol2tp socket is passed as file descriptor of UDP socket, a recursive deadlock occurs in l2tp_tunnel_register(). This situation is reproduced by the following program:

int main(void) { int sock; struct sockaddr_pppol2tp addr;

sock = socket(AF_PPPOX, SOCK_DGRAM, PX_PROTO_OL2TP); if (sock < 0) { perror("socket"); return 1; }

addr.sa_family = AF_PPPOX; addr.sa_protocol = PX_PROTO_OL2TP; addr.pppol2tp.pid = 0; addr.pppol2tp.fd = sock; addr.pppol2tp.addr.sin_family = PF_INET; addr.pppol2tp.addr.sin_port = htons(0); addr.pppol2tp.addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("192.168.0.1"); addr.pppol2tp.s_tunnel = 1; addr.pppol2tp.s_session = 0; addr.pppol2tp.d_tunnel = 0; addr.pppol2tp.d_session = 0;

if (connect(sock, (const struct sockaddr *)&addr, sizeof(addr)) < 0) { perror("connect"); return 1; }

return 0; }

This program causes the following lockdep warning:

============================================ WARNING: possible recursive locking detected 6.2.0-rc5-00205-gc96618275234 #56 Not tainted -------------------------------------------- repro/8607 is trying to acquire lock: ffff8880213c8130 (sk_lock-AF_PPPOX){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: l2tp_tunnel_register+0x2b7/0x11c0

but task is already holding lock: ffff8880213c8130 (sk_lock-AF_PPPOX){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: pppol2tp_connect+0xa82/0x1a30

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

CPU0 ---- lock(sk_lock-AF_PPPOX); lock(sk_lock-AF_PPPOX);

*** DEADLOCK ***

May be due to missing lock nesting notation

1 lock held by repro/8607: #0: ffff8880213c8130 (sk_lock-AF_PPPOX){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: pppol2tp_connect+0xa82/0x1a30

stack backtrace: CPU: 0 PID: 8607 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5-00205-gc96618275234 #56 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x100/0x178 __lock_acquire.cold+0x119/0x3b9 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x410/0x410 lock_acquire+0x1e0/0x610 ? l2tp_tunnel_register+0x2b7/0x11c0 ? lock_downgrade+0x710/0x710 ? __fget_files+0x283/0x3e0 lock_sock_nested+0x3a/0xf0 ? l2tp_tunnel_register+0x2b7/0x11c0 l2tp_tunnel_register+0x2b7/0x11c0 ? sprintf+0xc4/0x100 ? l2tp_tunnel_del_work+0x6b0/0x6b0 ? debug_object_deactivate+0x320/0x320 ? lockdep_init_map_type+0x16d/0x7a0 ? lockdep_init_map_type+0x16d/0x7a0 ? l2tp_tunnel_create+0x2bf/0x4b0 ? l2tp_tunnel_create+0x3c6/0x4b0 pppol2tp_connect+0x14e1/0x1a30 ? pppol2tp_put_sk+0xd0/0xd0 ? aa_sk_perm+0x2b7/0xa80 ? aa_af_perm+0x260/0x260 ? bpf_lsm_socket_connect+0x9/0x10 ? pppol2tp_put_sk+0xd0/0xd0 __sys_connect_file+0x14f/0x190 __sys_connect+0x133/0x160 ? __sys_connect_file+0x190/0x190 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0x7d/0x100 ? ktime_get_coarse_real_ts64+0x1b7/0x200 ? ktime_get_coarse_real_ts64+0x147/0x200 ? __audit_syscall_entry+0x396/0x500 __x64_sys_connect+0x72/0xb0 do_syscall_64+0x38/0xb0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

This patch fixes the issue by getting/creating the tunnel before locking the pppol2tp socket.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.173, 5.15.99, 6.1.16, 6.2.3, 6.3
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 6.1.20-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53809

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-75.82
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1038.43
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1036.44
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1036.41
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1032.35
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1035.40
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1040.47
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1022.27

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53809

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 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.0.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • kernel-core RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • kernel-tools RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
  • python3-perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:2458

  • kernel-syms SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 4.12.14-122.290.1
  • kernel-source SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 4.12.14-122.290.1
  • kernel-default SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS, SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.290.1
  • kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP5_Update_76 SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 1-8.7.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:0316-1

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-2023-53809 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: Kernel: Denial of Service via recursive deadlock in L2TP tunnel registration

  • 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 Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) perf 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, rtla 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, +5 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.0.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-64k 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-core 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-tools 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, python3-perf 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, +28 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:2458
  • 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

Exploit prediction

0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

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.