CVE-2023-53811 RDMA/irdma: Cap MSIX used to online CPUs + 1
A flaw in the Linux kernel irdma driver allows a local attacker to trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service by exceeding MSIX vector limits.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-53811?
CVE-2023-53811 is a denial of service 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:
RDMA/irdma: Cap MSIX used to online CPUs + 1
The irdma driver can use a maximum number of msix vectors equal to num_online_cpus() + 1 and the kernel warning stack below is shown if that number is exceeded.
The kernel throws a warning as the driver tries to update the affinity hint with a CPU mask greater than the max CPU IDs. Fix this by capping the MSIX vectors to num_online_cpus() + 1.
WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 23655 at include/linux/cpumask.h:106 irdma_cfg_ceq_vector+0x34c/0x3f0 [irdma] RIP: 0010:irdma_cfg_ceq_vector+0x34c/0x3f0 [irdma] Call Trace: irdma_rt_init_hw+0xa62/0x1290 [irdma] ? irdma_alloc_local_mac_entry+0x1a0/0x1a0 [irdma] ? __is_kernel_percpu_address+0x63/0x310 ? rcu_read_lock_held_common+0xe/0xb0 ? irdma_lan_unregister_qset+0x280/0x280 [irdma] ? irdma_request_reset+0x80/0x80 [irdma] ? ice_get_qos_params+0x84/0x390 [ice] irdma_probe+0xa40/0xfc0 [irdma] ? rcu_read_lock_bh_held+0xd0/0xd0 ? irdma_remove+0x140/0x140 [irdma] ? rcu_read_lock_sched_held+0x62/0xe0 ? down_write+0x187/0x3d0 ? auxiliary_match_id+0xf0/0x1a0 ? irdma_remove+0x140/0x140 [irdma] auxiliary_bus_probe+0xa6/0x100 __driver_probe_device+0x4a4/0xd50 ? __device_attach_driver+0x2c0/0x2c0 driver_probe_device+0x4a/0x110 __driver_attach+0x1aa/0x350 bus_for_each_dev+0x11d/0x1b0 ? subsys_dev_iter_init+0xe0/0xe0 bus_add_driver+0x3b1/0x610 driver_register+0x18e/0x410 ? 0xffffffffc0b88000 irdma_init_module+0x50/0xaa [irdma] do_one_initcall+0x103/0x5f0 ? perf_trace_initcall_level+0x420/0x420 ? do_init_module+0x4e/0x700 ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x7d/0xa0 ? kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x188/0x2b0 ? kasan_unpoison+0x21/0x50 do_init_module+0x1d1/0x700 load_module+0x3867/0x5260 ? layout_and_allocate+0x3990/0x3990 ? rcu_read_lock_held_common+0xe/0xb0 ? rcu_read_lock_sched_held+0x62/0xe0 ? rcu_read_lock_bh_held+0xd0/0xd0 ? __vmalloc_node_range+0x46b/0x890 ? lock_release+0x5c8/0xba0 ? alloc_vm_area+0x120/0x120 ? selinux_kernel_module_from_file+0x2a5/0x300 ? __inode_security_revalidate+0xf0/0xf0 ? __do_sys_init_module+0x1db/0x260 __do_sys_init_module+0x1db/0x260 ? load_module+0x5260/0x5260 ? do_syscall_64+0x22/0x450 do_syscall_64+0xa5/0x450 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x66/0xdb
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53811?
How do I fix CVE-2023-53811?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-53811 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53811 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53811, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53811, GHSA-4q86-c76w-9mx5, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53811.