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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2023-54262 json

net/mlx5e: Don't clone flow post action attributes second time

published 2025-12-30 10 mo ago modified 2026-10-15 24 d ago also EUVD-2023-60379

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 19%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net/mlx5e: Don't clone flow post action attributes second time

The code already clones post action attributes in mlx5e_clone_flow_attr_for_post_act(). Creating another copy in mlx5e_tc_post_act_add() is a erroneous leftover from original implementation. Instead, assign handle->attribute to post_attr provided by the caller. Note that cloning the attribute second time is not just wasteful but also causes issues like second copy not being properly updated in neigh update code which leads to following use-after-free:

Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in mlx5_cmd_set_fte+0x200d/0x24c0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_report+0xbb/0x1a0 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: __kasan_kmalloc+0x7a/0x90 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_save_free_info+0x2a/0x40 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ____kasan_slab_free+0x11a/0x1b0 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_core 0000:08:00.0: mlx5_cmd_out_err:803:(pid 8833): SET_FLOW_TABLE_ENTRY(0x936) op_mod(0x0) failed, status bad resource state(0x9), syndrome (0xf2ff71), err(-22) Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_core 0000:08:00.0 enp8s0f0: Failed to add post action rule Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_core 0000:08:00.0: mlx5e_tc_encap_flows_add:190:(pid 8833): Failed to update flow post acts, -22 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: Call Trace: Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: <TASK> Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x7d Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: print_report+0x170/0x471 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ? mlx5_cmd_set_fte+0x200d/0x24c0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_report+0xbb/0x1a0 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ? mlx5_cmd_set_fte+0x200d/0x24c0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_cmd_set_fte+0x200d/0x24c0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ? __module_address.part.0+0x62/0x200 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ? mlx5_cmd_stub_create_flow_table+0xd0/0xd0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: ? __raw_spin_lock_init+0x3b/0x110 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_cmd_create_fte+0x80/0xb0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: add_rule_fg+0xe80/0x19c0 [mlx5_core] -- Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: Allocated by task 13476: Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: __kasan_kmalloc+0x7a/0x90 Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5_packet_reformat_alloc+0x7b/0x230 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_tc_tun_create_header_ipv4+0x977/0xf10 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_attach_encap+0x15b4/0x1e10 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: post_process_attr+0x305/0xa30 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_tc_add_fdb_flow+0x4c0/0xcf0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: __mlx5e_add_fdb_flow+0x7cf/0xe90 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_configure_flower+0xcaa/0x4b90 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_rep_setup_tc_cls_flower+0x99/0x1b0 [mlx5_core] Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: mlx5e_rep_setup_tc_cb+0x133/0x1e0 [mlx5_core] -- Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: Freed by task 8833: Feb 21 09:02:00 c-237-177-40-045 kernel: kasan_save_s ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2, 6.4
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.37-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.3.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54262

  • kernel RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:7077RHSA-2023:6583

  • kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +3 more 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.133.1.150500.6.65.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.5 5.14.21-150500.13.118.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.5 5.14.21-150500.13.118.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:0317-1SUSE-SU-2026:0263-1

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-2023-54262 updated cvss 5.8

kernel: net/mlx5e: Don't clone flow post action attributes second time

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, bpftool 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-core 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-tools 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, python3-perf 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:7077
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 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
total
Assessed
24 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.