CVE-2023-53312 net: fix net_dev_start_xmit trace event vs skb_transport_offset()

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A kernel bug in the network trace event handling can cause a system crash or memory corruption when processing specific network packets.

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-2023-53312?

CVE-2023-53312 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 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: fix net_dev_start_xmit trace event vs skb_transport_offset()

After blamed commit, we must be more careful about using skb_transport_offset(), as reminded us by syzbot:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 10 at include/linux/skbuff.h:2868 skb_transport_offset include/linux/skbuff.h:2977 [inline] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 10 at include/linux/skbuff.h:2868 perf_trace_net_dev_start_xmit+0x89a/0xce0 include/trace/events/net.h:14 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 10 Comm: kworker/u4:1 Not tainted 6.1.30-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/27/2023 Workqueue: bat_events batadv_iv_send_outstanding_bat_ogm_packet RIP: 0010:skb_transport_header include/linux/skbuff.h:2868 [inline] RIP: 0010:skb_transport_offset include/linux/skbuff.h:2977 [inline] RIP: 0010:perf_trace_net_dev_start_xmit+0x89a/0xce0 include/trace/events/net.h:14 Code: 8b 04 25 28 00 00 00 48 3b 84 24 c0 00 00 00 0f 85 4e 04 00 00 48 8d 65 d8 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d c3 cc e8 56 22 01 fd <0f> 0b e9 f6 fc ff ff 89 f9 80 e1 07 80 c1 03 38 c1 0f 8c 86 f9 ff RSP: 0018:ffffc900002bf700 EFLAGS: 00010293 RAX: ffffffff8485d8ca RBX: 000000000000ffff RCX: ffff888100914280 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 000000000000ffff RDI: 000000000000ffff RBP: ffffc900002bf818 R08: ffffffff8485d5b6 R09: fffffbfff0f8fb5e R10: 0000000000000000 R11: dffffc0000000001 R12: 1ffff110217d8f67 R13: ffff88810bec7b3a R14: dffffc0000000000 R15: dffffc0000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8881f6a00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f96cf6d52f0 CR3: 000000012224c000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> [<ffffffff84715e35>] trace_net_dev_start_xmit include/trace/events/net.h:14 [inline] [<ffffffff84715e35>] xmit_one net/core/dev.c:3643 [inline] [<ffffffff84715e35>] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x705/0x980 net/core/dev.c:3660 [<ffffffff8471a232>] __dev_queue_xmit+0x16b2/0x3370 net/core/dev.c:4324 [<ffffffff85416493>] dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3030 [inline] [<ffffffff85416493>] batadv_send_skb_packet+0x3f3/0x680 net/batman-adv/send.c:108 [<ffffffff85416744>] batadv_send_broadcast_skb+0x24/0x30 net/batman-adv/send.c:127 [<ffffffff853bc52a>] batadv_iv_ogm_send_to_if net/batman-adv/bat_iv_ogm.c:393 [inline] [<ffffffff853bc52a>] batadv_iv_ogm_emit net/batman-adv/bat_iv_ogm.c:421 [inline] [<ffffffff853bc52a>] batadv_iv_send_outstanding_bat_ogm_packet+0x69a/0x840 net/batman-adv/bat_iv_ogm.c:1701 [<ffffffff8151023c>] process_one_work+0x8ac/0x1170 kernel/workqueue.c:2289 [<ffffffff81511938>] worker_thread+0xaa8/0x12d0 kernel/workqueue.c:2436

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53312?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53312?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2023-53312 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53312 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53312, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53312, GHSA-gp2g-j8q2-w9v8, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53312.

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