CVE-2023-53109 net: tunnels: annotate lockless accesses to dev->needed_headroom

Medium 5.5 Published 2 May 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A data race in Linux kernel IP tunnel transmission can lead to system instability or crashes due to unsynchronized access to device headroom fields.

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-2023-53109?

CVE-2023-53109 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: tunnels: annotate lockless accesses to dev->needed_headroom

IP tunnels can apparently update dev->needed_headroom in their xmit path.

This patch takes care of three tunnels xmit, and also the core LL_RESERVED_SPACE() and LL_RESERVED_SPACE_EXTRA() helpers.

More changes might be needed for completeness.

BUG: KCSAN: data-race in ip_tunnel_xmit / ip_tunnel_xmit

read to 0xffff88815b9da0ec of 2 bytes by task 888 on cpu 1: ip_tunnel_xmit+0x1270/0x1730 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:803 __gre_xmit net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:469 [inline] ipgre_xmit+0x516/0x570 net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:661 __netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4881 [inline] netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4895 [inline] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3580 [inline] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x127/0x400 net/core/dev.c:3596 __dev_queue_xmit+0x1007/0x1eb0 net/core/dev.c:4246 dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3051 [inline] neigh_direct_output+0x17/0x20 net/core/neighbour.c:1623 neigh_output include/net/neighbour.h:546 [inline] ip_finish_output2+0x740/0x840 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:228 ip_finish_output+0xf4/0x240 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:316 NF_HOOK_COND include/linux/netfilter.h:291 [inline] ip_output+0xe5/0x1b0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:430 dst_output include/net/dst.h:444 [inline] ip_local_out+0x64/0x80 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:126 iptunnel_xmit+0x34a/0x4b0 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel_core.c:82 ip_tunnel_xmit+0x1451/0x1730 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:813 __gre_xmit net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:469 [inline] ipgre_xmit+0x516/0x570 net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:661 __netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4881 [inline] netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4895 [inline] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3580 [inline] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x127/0x400 net/core/dev.c:3596 __dev_queue_xmit+0x1007/0x1eb0 net/core/dev.c:4246 dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3051 [inline] neigh_direct_output+0x17/0x20 net/core/neighbour.c:1623 neigh_output include/net/neighbour.h:546 [inline] ip_finish_output2+0x740/0x840 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:228 ip_finish_output+0xf4/0x240 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:316 NF_HOOK_COND include/linux/netfilter.h:291 [inline] ip_output+0xe5/0x1b0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:430 dst_output include/net/dst.h:444 [inline] ip_local_out+0x64/0x80 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:126 iptunnel_xmit+0x34a/0x4b0 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel_core.c:82 ip_tunnel_xmit+0x1451/0x1730 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:813 __gre_xmit net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:469 [inline] ipgre_xmit+0x516/0x570 net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:661 __netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4881 [inline] netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4895 [inline] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3580 [inline] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x127/0x400 net/core/dev.c:3596 __dev_queue_xmit+0x1007/0x1eb0 net/core/dev.c:4246 dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3051 [inline] neigh_direct_output+0x17/0x20 net/core/neighbour.c:1623 neigh_output include/net/neighbour.h:546 [inline] ip_finish_output2+0x740/0x840 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:228 ip_finish_output+0xf4/0x240 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:316 NF_HOOK_COND include/linux/netfilter.h:291 [inline] ip_output+0xe5/0x1b0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:430 dst_output include/net/dst.h:444 [inline] ip_local_out+0x64/0x80 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:126 iptunnel_xmit+0x34a/0x4b0 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel_core.c:82 ip_tunnel_xmit+0x1451/0x1730 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:813 __gre_xmit net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:469 [inline] ipgre_xmit+0x516/0x570 net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:661 __netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4881 [inline] netdev_start_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:4895 [inline] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3580 [inline] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x127/0x400 net/core/dev.c:3596 __dev_queue_xmit+0x1007/0x1eb0 net/core/dev.c:4246 dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3051 [inline] neigh_direct_output+0x17/0x20 net/core/neighbour.c:1623 neigh_output include/net/neighbour.h:546 [inline] ip_finish_output2+0x740/0x840 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:228 ip_finish_output+0xf4/0x240 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:316 NF_HOOK_COND include/linux/netfilter.h:291 [inline] ip_output+0xe5/0x1b0 net/i ---truncated---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53109?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53109?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53109 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53109 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53109, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53109, GHSA-873c-438h-rqmq, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53109.