CVE-2023-53079 net/mlx5: Fix steering rules cleanup
A null pointer dereference in the mlx5 network driver causes a kernel crash during device recovery, leading to denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-53079?
CVE-2023-53079 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 May 2025. 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/mlx5: Fix steering rules cleanup
vport's mc, uc and multicast rules are not deleted in teardown path when EEH happens. Since the vport's promisc settings(uc, mc and all) in firmware are reset after EEH, mlx5 driver will try to delete the above rules in the initialization path. This cause kernel crash because these software rules are no longer valid.
Fix by nullifying these rules right after delete to avoid accessing any dangling pointers.
Call Trace: __list_del_entry_valid+0xcc/0x100 (unreliable) tree_put_node+0xf4/0x1b0 [mlx5_core] tree_remove_node+0x30/0x70 [mlx5_core] mlx5_del_flow_rules+0x14c/0x1f0 [mlx5_core] esw_apply_vport_rx_mode+0x10c/0x200 [mlx5_core] esw_update_vport_rx_mode+0xb4/0x180 [mlx5_core] esw_vport_change_handle_locked+0x1ec/0x230 [mlx5_core] esw_enable_vport+0x130/0x260 [mlx5_core] mlx5_eswitch_enable_sriov+0x2a0/0x2f0 [mlx5_core] mlx5_device_enable_sriov+0x74/0x440 [mlx5_core] mlx5_load_one+0x114c/0x1550 [mlx5_core] mlx5_pci_resume+0x68/0xf0 [mlx5_core] eeh_report_resume+0x1a4/0x230 eeh_pe_dev_traverse+0x98/0x170 eeh_handle_normal_event+0x3e4/0x640 eeh_handle_event+0x4c/0x370 eeh_event_handler+0x14c/0x210 kthread+0x168/0x1b0 ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x84
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53079?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53079?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-53079 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53079 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53079, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53079, GHSA-wfpp-99hh-hj75, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53079.