CVE-2023-53659 iavf: Fix out-of-bounds when setting channels on remove

High 7.8 Published 7 Oct 2025 Updated 15 Oct 2026

A race condition in the iavf driver causes an out-of-bounds read during device removal, potentially leading to a kernel crash.

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-2023-53659?

CVE-2023-53659 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 Oct 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:

iavf: Fix out-of-bounds when setting channels on remove

If we set channels greater during iavf_remove(), and waiting reset done would be timeout, then returned with error but changed num_active_queues directly, that will lead to OOB like the following logs. Because the num_active_queues is greater than tx/rx_rings[] allocated actually.

Reproducer:

[root@host ~]# cat repro.sh #!/bin/bash

pf_dbsf="0000:41:00.0" vf0_dbsf="0000:41:02.0" g_pids=()

function do_set_numvf() { echo 2 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/${pf_dbsf}/sriov_numvfs sleep $((RANDOM%3+1)) echo 0 >/sys/bus/pci/devices/${pf_dbsf}/sriov_numvfs sleep $((RANDOM%3+1)) }

function do_set_channel() { local nic=$(ls -1 --indicator-style=none /sys/bus/pci/devices/${vf0_dbsf}/net/) [ -z "$nic" ] && { sleep $((RANDOM%3)) ; return 1; } ifconfig $nic 192.168.18.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 ifconfig $nic up ethtool -L $nic combined 1 ethtool -L $nic combined 4 sleep $((RANDOM%3)) }

function on_exit() { local pid for pid in "${g_pids[@]}"; do kill -0 "$pid" &>/dev/null && kill "$pid" &>/dev/null done g_pids=() }

trap "on_exit; exit" EXIT

while :; do do_set_numvf ; done & g_pids+=($!) while :; do do_set_channel ; done & g_pids+=($!)

wait

Result:

[ 3506.152887] iavf 0000:41:02.0: Removing device [ 3510.400799] ================================================================== [ 3510.400820] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in iavf_free_all_tx_resources+0x156/0x160 [iavf] [ 3510.400823] Read of size 8 at addr ffff88b6f9311008 by task repro.sh/55536 [ 3510.400823] [ 3510.400830] CPU: 101 PID: 55536 Comm: repro.sh Kdump: loaded Tainted: G O --------- -t - 4.18.0 #1 [ 3510.400832] Hardware name: Powerleader PR2008AL/H12DSi-N6, BIOS 2.0 04/09/2021 [ 3510.400835] Call Trace: [ 3510.400851] dump_stack+0x71/0xab [ 3510.400860] print_address_description+0x6b/0x290 [ 3510.400865] ? iavf_free_all_tx_resources+0x156/0x160 [iavf] [ 3510.400868] kasan_report+0x14a/0x2b0 [ 3510.400873] iavf_free_all_tx_resources+0x156/0x160 [iavf] [ 3510.400880] iavf_remove+0x2b6/0xc70 [iavf] [ 3510.400884] ? iavf_free_all_rx_resources+0x160/0x160 [iavf] [ 3510.400891] ? wait_woken+0x1d0/0x1d0 [ 3510.400895] ? notifier_call_chain+0xc1/0x130 [ 3510.400903] pci_device_remove+0xa8/0x1f0 [ 3510.400910] device_release_driver_internal+0x1c6/0x460 [ 3510.400916] pci_stop_bus_device+0x101/0x150 [ 3510.400919] pci_stop_and_remove_bus_device+0xe/0x20 [ 3510.400924] pci_iov_remove_virtfn+0x187/0x420 [ 3510.400927] ? pci_iov_add_virtfn+0xe10/0xe10 [ 3510.400929] ? pci_get_subsys+0x90/0x90 [ 3510.400932] sriov_disable+0xed/0x3e0 [ 3510.400936] ? bus_find_device+0x12d/0x1a0 [ 3510.400953] i40e_free_vfs+0x754/0x1210 [i40e] [ 3510.400966] ? i40e_reset_all_vfs+0x880/0x880 [i40e] [ 3510.400968] ? pci_get_device+0x7c/0x90 [ 3510.400970] ? pci_get_subsys+0x90/0x90 [ 3510.400982] ? pci_vfs_assigned.part.7+0x144/0x210 [ 3510.400987] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x10/0x10 [ 3510.400996] i40e_pci_sriov_configure+0x1fa/0x2e0 [i40e] [ 3510.401001] sriov_numvfs_store+0x214/0x290 [ 3510.401005] ? sriov_totalvfs_show+0x30/0x30 [ 3510.401007] ? __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x10/0x10 [ 3510.401011] ? __check_object_size+0x15a/0x350 [ 3510.401018] kernfs_fop_write+0x280/0x3f0 [ 3510.401022] vfs_write+0x145/0x440 [ 3510.401025] ksys_write+0xab/0x160 [ 3510.401028] ? __ia32_sys_read+0xb0/0xb0 [ 3510.401031] ? fput_many+0x1a/0x120 [ 3510.401032] ? filp_close+0xf0/0x130 [ 3510.401038] do_syscall_64+0xa0/0x370 [ 3510.401041] ? page_fault+0x8/0x30 [ 3510.401043] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x65/0xca [ 3510.401073] RIP: 0033:0x7f3a9bb842c0 [ 3510.401079] Code: 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d d8 cb 2c 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 83 3d 89 24 2d 00 00 75 10 b8 01 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53659?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53659?

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-2023-53659 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53659 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53659, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53659, GHSA-h9wv-v64w-rmq6, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53659.