# CVE-2023-53790: bpf: Zeroing allocated object from slab in bpf memory allocator

> A race condition in the Linux kernel BPF memory allocator can cause a hard-lockup and denial of service when freed elements are reused.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53790, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53790, GHSA-f32h-2m5f-x5c6, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53790

## What is CVE-2023-53790?

CVE-2023-53790 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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:

bpf: Zeroing allocated object from slab in bpf memory allocator

Currently the freed element in bpf memory allocator may be immediately
reused, for htab map the reuse will reinitialize special fields in map
value (e.g., bpf_spin_lock), but lookup procedure may still access
these special fields, and it may lead to hard-lockup as shown below:

 NMI backtrace for cpu 16
 CPU: 16 PID: 2574 Comm: htab.bin Tainted: G             L     6.1.0+ #1
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996),
 RIP: 0010:queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x283/0x2c0
 ......
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  copy_map_value_locked+0xb7/0x170
  bpf_map_copy_value+0x113/0x3c0
  __sys_bpf+0x1c67/0x2780
  __x64_sys_bpf+0x1c/0x20
  do_syscall_64+0x30/0x60
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
 ......
  </TASK>

For htab map, just like the preallocated case, these is no need to
initialize these special fields in map value again once these fields
have been initialized. For preallocated htab map, these fields are
initialized through __GFP_ZERO in bpf_map_area_alloc(), so do the
similar thing for non-preallocated htab in bpf memory allocator. And
there is no need to use __GFP_ZERO for per-cpu bpf memory allocator,
because __alloc_percpu_gfp() does it implicitly.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53790?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53790?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53790 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53790 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53790 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53790 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2023-53790 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53790/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53790/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53790
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53790
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53790

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53790/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.