CVE-2023-53726 arm64: csum: Fix OoB access in IP checksum code for negative lengths
A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel's IP checksum code by providing negative lengths, potentially causing a crash or information leak.
- 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-2023-53726?
CVE-2023-53726 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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:
arm64: csum: Fix OoB access in IP checksum code for negative lengths
Although commit c2c24edb1d9c ("arm64: csum: Fix pathological zero-length calls") added an early return for zero-length input, syzkaller has popped up with an example of a _negative_ length which causes an undefined shift and an out-of-bounds read:
| BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in do_csum+0x44/0x254 arch/arm64/lib/csum.c:39 | Read of size 4294966928 at addr ffff0000d7ac0170 by task syz-executor412/5975 | | CPU: 0 PID: 5975 Comm: syz-executor412 Not tainted 6.4.0-rc4-syzkaller-g908f31f2a05b #0 | Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/25/2023 | Call trace: | dump_backtrace+0x1b8/0x1e4 arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:233 | show_stack+0x2c/0x44 arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:240 | __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] | dump_stack_lvl+0xd0/0x124 lib/dump_stack.c:106 | print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:351 [inline] | print_report+0x174/0x514 mm/kasan/report.c:462 | kasan_report+0xd4/0x130 mm/kasan/report.c:572 | kasan_check_range+0x264/0x2a4 mm/kasan/generic.c:187 | __kasan_check_read+0x20/0x30 mm/kasan/shadow.c:31 | do_csum+0x44/0x254 arch/arm64/lib/csum.c:39 | csum_partial+0x30/0x58 lib/checksum.c:128 | gso_make_checksum include/linux/skbuff.h:4928 [inline] | __udp_gso_segment+0xaf4/0x1bc4 net/ipv4/udp_offload.c:332 | udp6_ufo_fragment+0x540/0xca0 net/ipv6/udp_offload.c:47 | ipv6_gso_segment+0x5cc/0x1760 net/ipv6/ip6_offload.c:119 | skb_mac_gso_segment+0x2b4/0x5b0 net/core/gro.c:141 | __skb_gso_segment+0x250/0x3d0 net/core/dev.c:3401 | skb_gso_segment include/linux/netdevice.h:4859 [inline] | validate_xmit_skb+0x364/0xdbc net/core/dev.c:3659 | validate_xmit_skb_list+0x94/0x130 net/core/dev.c:3709 | sch_direct_xmit+0xe8/0x548 net/sched/sch_generic.c:327 | __dev_xmit_skb net/core/dev.c:3805 [inline] | __dev_queue_xmit+0x147c/0x3318 net/core/dev.c:4210 | dev_queue_xmit include/linux/netdevice.h:3085 [inline] | packet_xmit+0x6c/0x318 net/packet/af_packet.c:276 | packet_snd net/packet/af_packet.c:3081 [inline] | packet_sendmsg+0x376c/0x4c98 net/packet/af_packet.c:3113 | sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] | sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline] | __sys_sendto+0x3b4/0x538 net/socket.c:2144
Extend the early return to reject negative lengths as well, aligning our implementation with the generic code in lib/checksum.c
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53726?
How do I fix CVE-2023-53726?
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-2023-53726 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53726 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53726, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53726, GHSA-9wr9-q3c6-m872, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53726.