# CVE-2023-52435: net: prevent mss overflow in skb_segment()

> An integer overflow in the Linux kernel's skb_segment function allows attackers to cause a system crash via crafted network packets.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-35811, BELL-CVE-2023-52435, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52435, GHSA-6vr7-3j3q-8546, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52435

## What is CVE-2023-52435?

CVE-2023-52435 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net: prevent mss overflow in skb_segment()

Once again syzbot is able to crash the kernel in skb_segment() [1]

GSO_BY_FRAGS is a forbidden value, but unfortunately the following
computation in skb_segment() can reach it quite easily :

	mss = mss * partial_segs;

65535 = 3 * 5 * 17 * 257, so many initial values of mss can lead to
a bad final result.

Make sure to limit segmentation so that the new mss value is smaller
than GSO_BY_FRAGS.

[1]

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc000000000e: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000070-0x0000000000000077]
CPU: 1 PID: 5079 Comm: syz-executor993 Not tainted 6.7.0-rc4-syzkaller-00141-g1ae4cd3cbdd0 #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 11/10/2023
RIP: 0010:skb_segment+0x181d/0x3f30 net/core/skbuff.c:4551
Code: 83 e3 02 e9 fb ed ff ff e8 90 68 1c f9 48 8b 84 24 f8 00 00 00 48 8d 78 70 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 89 fa 48 c1 ea 03 <0f> b6 04 02 84 c0 74 08 3c 03 0f 8e 8a 21 00 00 48 8b 84 24 f8 00
RSP: 0018:ffffc900043473d0 EFLAGS: 00010202
RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000010046 RCX: ffffffff886b1597
RDX: 000000000000000e RSI: ffffffff886b2520 RDI: 0000000000000070
RBP: ffffc90004347578 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 000000000000ffff
R10: 000000000000ffff R11: 0000000000000002 R12: ffff888063202ac0
R13: 0000000000010000 R14: 000000000000ffff R15: 0000000000000046
FS: 0000555556e7e380(0000) GS:ffff8880b9900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000000020010000 CR3: 0000000027ee2000 CR4: 00000000003506f0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
<TASK>
udp6_ufo_fragment+0xa0e/0xd00 net/ipv6/udp_offload.c:109
ipv6_gso_segment+0x534/0x17e0 net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c:120
skb_mac_gso_segment+0x290/0x610 net/core/gso.c:53
__skb_gso_segment+0x339/0x710 net/core/gso.c:124
skb_gso_segment include/net/gso.h:83 [inline]
validate_xmit_skb+0x36c/0xeb0 net/core/dev.c:3626
__dev_queue_xmit+0x6f3/0x3d60 net/core/dev.c:4338
dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3134 [inline]
packet_xmit+0x257/0x380 net/packet/af_packet.c:276
packet_snd net/packet/af_packet.c:3087 [inline]
packet_sendmsg+0x24c6/0x5220 net/packet/af_packet.c:3119
sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:730 [inline]
__sock_sendmsg+0xd5/0x180 net/socket.c:745
__sys_sendto+0x255/0x340 net/socket.c:2190
__do_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2202 [inline]
__se_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2198 [inline]
__x64_sys_sendto+0xe0/0x1b0 net/socket.c:2198
do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
do_syscall_64+0x40/0x110 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0x6b
RIP: 0033:0x7f8692032aa9
Code: 28 00 00 00 75 05 48 83 c4 28 c3 e8 d1 19 00 00 90 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007fff8d685418 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000003 RCX: 00007f8692032aa9
RDX: 0000000000010048 RSI: 00000000200000c0 RDI: 0000000000000003
RBP: 00000000000f4240 R08: 0000000020000540 R09: 0000000000000014
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007fff8d685480
R13: 0000000000000001 R14: 00007fff8d685480 R15: 0000000000000003
</TASK>
Modules linked in:
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
RIP: 0010:skb_segment+0x181d/0x3f30 net/core/skbuff.c:4551
Code: 83 e3 02 e9 fb ed ff ff e8 90 68 1c f9 48 8b 84 24 f8 00 00 00 48 8d 78 70 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 89 fa 48 c1 ea 03 <0f> b6 04 02 84 c0 74 08 3c 03 0f 8e 8a 21 00 00 48 8b 84 24 f8 00
RSP: 0018:ffffc900043473d0 EFLAGS: 00010202
RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000010046 RCX: ffffffff886b1597
RDX: 000000000000000e RSI: ffffffff886b2520 RDI: 0000000000000070
RBP: ffffc90004347578 R0
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52435?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52435?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52435 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52435 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52435 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52435 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52435 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52435/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52435/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52435
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52435
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52435

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52435/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.