# CVE-2023-53198: raw: Fix NULL deref in raw_get_next().

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's raw socket handling causes a NULL pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.

- **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:** 15 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53198, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53198, GHSA-hmqp-vg4p-vwv9, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53198, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53198

## What is CVE-2023-53198?

CVE-2023-53198 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:

raw: Fix NULL deref in raw_get_next().

Dae R. Jeong reported a NULL deref in raw_get_next() [0].

It seems that the repro was running these sequences in parallel so
that one thread was iterating on a socket that was being freed in
another netns.

  unshare(0x40060200)
  r0 = syz_open_procfs(0x0, &(0x7f0000002080)='net/raw\x00')
  socket$inet_icmp_raw(0x2, 0x3, 0x1)
  pread64(r0, &(0x7f0000000000)=""/10, 0xa, 0x10000000007f)

After commit 0daf07e52709 ("raw: convert raw sockets to RCU"), we
use RCU and hlist_nulls_for_each_entry() to iterate over SOCK_RAW
sockets.  However, we should use spinlock for slow paths to avoid
the NULL deref.

Also, SOCK_RAW does not use SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU, and the slab object
is not reused during iteration in the grace period.  In fact, the
lockless readers do not check the nulls marker with get_nulls_value().
So, SOCK_RAW should use hlist instead of hlist_nulls.

Instead of adding an unnecessary barrier by sk_nulls_for_each_rcu(),
let's convert hlist_nulls to hlist and use sk_for_each_rcu() for
fast paths and sk_for_each() and spinlock for /proc/net/raw.

[0]:
general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000005: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000028-0x000000000000002f]
CPU: 2 PID: 20952 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.2.0-g048ec869bafd-dirty #7
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:read_pnet include/net/net_namespace.h:383 [inline]
RIP: 0010:sock_net include/net/sock.h:649 [inline]
RIP: 0010:raw_get_next net/ipv4/raw.c:974 [inline]
RIP: 0010:raw_get_idx net/ipv4/raw.c:986 [inline]
RIP: 0010:raw_seq_start+0x431/0x800 net/ipv4/raw.c:995
Code: ef e8 33 3d 94 f7 49 8b 6d 00 4c 89 ef e8 b7 65 5f f7 49 89 ed 49 83 c5 98 0f 84 9a 00 00 00 48 83 c5 c8 48 89 e8 48 c1 e8 03 <42> 80 3c 30 00 74 08 48 89 ef e8 00 3d 94 f7 4c 8b 7d 00 48 89 ef
RSP: 0018:ffffc9001154f9b0 EFLAGS: 00010206
RAX: 0000000000000005 RBX: 1ffff1100302c8fd RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000000028 RSI: ffffc9001154f988 RDI: ffffc9000f77a338
RBP: 0000000000000029 R08: ffffffff8a50ffb4 R09: fffffbfff24b6bd9
R10: fffffbfff24b6bd9 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88801db73b78
R13: fffffffffffffff9 R14: dffffc0000000000 R15: 0000000000000030
FS:  00007f843ae8e700(0000) GS:ffff888063700000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 000055bb9614b35f CR3: 000000003c672000 CR4: 00000000003506e0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 seq_read_iter+0x4c6/0x10f0 fs/seq_file.c:225
 seq_read+0x224/0x320 fs/seq_file.c:162
 pde_read fs/proc/inode.c:316 [inline]
 proc_reg_read+0x23f/0x330 fs/proc/inode.c:328
 vfs_read+0x31e/0xd30 fs/read_write.c:468
 ksys_pread64 fs/read_write.c:665 [inline]
 __do_sys_pread64 fs/read_write.c:675 [inline]
 __se_sys_pread64 fs/read_write.c:672 [inline]
 __x64_sys_pread64+0x1e9/0x280 fs/read_write.c:672
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x4e/0xa0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:82
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
RIP: 0033:0x478d29
Code: f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 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 bc ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007f843ae8dbe8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000011
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000791408 RCX: 0000000000478d29
RDX: 000000000000000a RSI: 0000000020000000 RDI: 0000000000000003
RBP: 00000000f477909a R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 000010000000007f R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000791740
R13: 0000000000791414 R14: 0000000000791408 R15: 00007ffc2eb48a50
 </TASK>
Modules linked in:
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
RIP: 0010
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53198?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53198?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53198 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53198 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-2023-53198 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53198 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-2023-53198 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-2023-53198/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53198/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53198
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53198
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53198

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53198/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.