{"answers":{"affected":"","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53798 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"Apply the vendor's patch.","what":"CVE-2023-53798 is a 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."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53798 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2023-53798 is a 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.\nExploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53798 in the wild and no public exploit code.\n\nAffected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.\n\nTask:\n1. 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.\n2. 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.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53798/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53798/index.md)","id":"CVE-2023-53798","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53798/index.md","name":"CVE-2023-53798","record":{"aliases":["BELL-CVE-2023-53798","DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798","GHSA-rhrj-6hqh-9pgr","UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53798"],"analysis":{"component_type":"kernel","fix_type":"patch","impacts":["data_read"],"network_reachable":"adjacent_or_local","non_default_config":false,"product_category":"Linux kernel","requires_auth":"low_privilege","summary":"A local attacker with low privileges can trigger uninitialized memory usage in the Linux kernel ethtool interface, potentially leading to information disclosure.","user_interaction":"not_required","vuln_class":"information_disclosure"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"Linux","cpe":[],"cvss":{"score":null,"severity":null,"source":null,"vector":null,"version":null},"cwes":[],"description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes\n\nIt is not possible to set the number of lanes when setting link modes\nusing the legacy IOCTL ethtool interface. Since 'struct\nethtool_link_ksettings' is not initialized in this path, drivers receive\nan uninitialized number of lanes in 'struct\nethtool_link_ksettings::lanes'.\n\nWhen this information is later queried from drivers, it results in the\nethtool code making decisions based on uninitialized memory, leading to\nthe following KMSAN splat [1]. In practice, this most likely only\nhappens with the tun driver that simply returns whatever it got in the\nset operation.\n\nAs far as I can tell, this uninitialized memory is not leaked to user\nspace thanks to the 'ethtool_ops-\u003ecap_link_lanes_supported' check in\nlinkmodes_prepare_data().\n\nFix by initializing the structure in the IOCTL path. Did not find any\nmore call sites that pass an uninitialized structure when calling\n'ethtool_ops::set_link_ksettings()'.\n\n[1]\nBUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline]\nBUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333\n ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline]\n ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333\n ethnl_default_set_doit+0x88d/0xde0 net/ethtool/netlink.c:640\n genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 [inline]\n genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1048 [inline]\n genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065\n netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577\n genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076\n netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline]\n netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365\n netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942\n sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline]\n sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline]\n ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501\n ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555\n __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline]\n __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline]\n __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline]\n __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591\n do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]\n do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80\n entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd\n\nUninit was stored to memory at:\n tun_get_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3544\n __ethtool_get_link_ksettings+0x17b/0x260 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:441\n ethnl_set_linkmodes+0xee/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:327\n ethnl_default_set_doit+0x88d/0xde0 net/ethtool/netlink.c:640\n genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 [inline]\n genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1048 [inline]\n genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065\n netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577\n genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076\n netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline]\n netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365\n netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942\n sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline]\n sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline]\n ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501\n ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555\n __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline]\n __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline]\n __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline]\n __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591\n do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]\n do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80\n entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd\n\nUninit was stored to memory at:\n tun_set_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3553\n ethtool_set_link_ksettings+0x600/0x690 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:609\n __dev_ethtool net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3024 [inline]\n dev_ethtool+0x1db9/0x2a70 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3078\n dev_ioctl+0xb07/0x1270 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:524\n sock_do_ioctl+0x295/0x540 net/socket.c:1213\n sock_i\n---truncated---","ecosystems":[],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":0,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":0,"nuclei":0,"refs":[],"tier":"none_known"},"has_fix":true,"headline":"ethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes","id":"CVE-2023-53798","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":null,"product":null,"products":[],"type":"information_disclosure","year":"2023"},"n_packages":0,"n_references":5,"next":{"headline":"crypto: api - Use work queue in crypto_destroy_instance","id":"CVE-2023-53799"},"packages":[],"prev":{"headline":"HID: wacom: Use ktime_t rather than int when dealing with timestamps","id":"CVE-2023-53797"},"products":["Linux"],"published":"2025-12-09","related":[],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2026-05-11","vendors":["Linux"]},"summary":"A local attacker with low privileges can trigger uninitialized memory usage in the Linux kernel ethtool interface, potentially leading to information disclosure.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53798/"}