# CVE-2023-53188: net: openvswitch: fix race on port output > A race condition in the Linux kernel Open vSwitch module can cause a CPU infinite loop, leading to denial of service. - **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:** 15 Sep 2025 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53188, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53188, GHSA-j5c6-h3mg-24rj, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53188 ## What is CVE-2023-53188? CVE-2023-53188 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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: openvswitch: fix race on port output assume the following setup on a single machine: 1. An openvswitch instance with one bridge and default flows 2. two network namespaces "server" and "client" 3. two ovs interfaces "server" and "client" on the bridge 4. for each ovs interface a veth pair with a matching name and 32 rx and tx queues 5. move the ends of the veth pairs to the respective network namespaces 6. assign ip addresses to each of the veth ends in the namespaces (needs to be the same subnet) 7. start some http server on the server network namespace 8. test if a client in the client namespace can reach the http server when following the actions below the host has a chance of getting a cpu stuck in a infinite loop: 1. send a large amount of parallel requests to the http server (around 3000 curls should work) 2. in parallel delete the network namespace (do not delete interfaces or stop the server, just kill the namespace) there is a low chance that this will cause the below kernel cpu stuck message. If this does not happen just retry. Below there is also the output of bpftrace for the functions mentioned in the output. The series of events happening here is: 1. the network namespace is deleted calling `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` somewhere in the process 2. this sets first `NETREG_UNREGISTERING` on both ends of the veth and then runs `synchronize_net` 3. it then calls `call_netdevice_notifiers` with `NETDEV_UNREGISTER` 4. this is then handled by `dp_device_event` which calls `ovs_netdev_detach_dev` (if a vport is found, which is the case for the veth interface attached to ovs) 5. this removes the rx_handlers of the device but does not prevent packages to be sent to the device 6. `dp_device_event` then queues the vport deletion to work in background as a ovs_lock is needed that we do not hold in the unregistration path 7. `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` continues to call `netdev_unregister_kobject` which sets `real_num_tx_queues` to 0 8. port deletion continues (but details are not relevant for this issue) 9. at some future point the background task deletes the vport If after 7. but before 9. a packet is send to the ovs vport (which is not deleted at this point in time) which forwards it to the `dev_queue_xmit` flow even though the device is unregistering. In `skb_tx_hash` (which is called in the `dev_queue_xmit`) path there is a while loop (if the packet has a rx_queue recorded) that is infinite if `dev->real_num_tx_queues` is zero. To prevent this from happening we update `do_output` to handle devices without carrier the same as if the device is not found (which would be the code path after 9. is done). Additionally we now produce a warning in `skb_tx_hash` if we will hit the infinite loop. bpftrace (first word is function name): __dev_queue_xmit server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 netdev_core_pick_tx server: addr: 0xffff9f0a46d4a000 real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 2, reg_state: 1 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 6, reg_state: 2 ovs_netdev_detach_dev server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 netdev_rx_handler_unregister server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 netdev_rx_handler_unregister ret server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 dp_ ---truncated--- Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53188? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2023-53188? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2023-53188 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53188 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-2023-53188 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2023-53188 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 2025. 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-2023-53188 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-2023-53188/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53188/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53188 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53188 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53188 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53188/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.