CVE-2023-46838 Linux: netback processing of zero-length transmit fragment

What is CVE-2023-46838?

CVE-2023-46838 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 29 Jan 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Transmit requests in Xen's virtual network protocol can consist of multiple parts. While not really useful, except for the initial part any of them may be of zero length, i.e. carry no data at all. Besides a certain initial portion of the to be transferred data, these parts are directly translated into what Linux calls SKB fragments. Such converted request parts can, when for a particular SKB they are all of length zero, lead to a de-reference of NULL in core networking code.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-46838?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-46838?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-46838 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-46838 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2023-46838, AZL-34016, AZL-34863, BELL-CVE-2023-46838, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-46838, GHSA-m3mr-pjj3-2g74 and 1 more.