CVE-2023-53824 netlink: annotate lockless accesses to nlk->max_recvmsg_len

What is CVE-2023-53824?

CVE-2023-53824 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:

netlink: annotate lockless accesses to nlk->max_recvmsg_len

syzbot reported a data-race in data-race in netlink_recvmsg() [1]

Indeed, netlink_recvmsg() can be run concurrently, and netlink_dump() also needs protection.

[1] BUG: KCSAN: data-race in netlink_recvmsg / netlink_recvmsg

read to 0xffff888141840b38 of 8 bytes by task 23057 on cpu 0: netlink_recvmsg+0xea/0x730 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1988 sock_recvmsg_nosec net/socket.c:1017 [inline] sock_recvmsg net/socket.c:1038 [inline] __sys_recvfrom+0x1ee/0x2e0 net/socket.c:2194 __do_sys_recvfrom net/socket.c:2212 [inline] __se_sys_recvfrom net/socket.c:2208 [inline] __x64_sys_recvfrom+0x78/0x90 net/socket.c:2208 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

write to 0xffff888141840b38 of 8 bytes by task 23037 on cpu 1: netlink_recvmsg+0x114/0x730 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1989 sock_recvmsg_nosec net/socket.c:1017 [inline] sock_recvmsg net/socket.c:1038 [inline] ____sys_recvmsg+0x156/0x310 net/socket.c:2720 ___sys_recvmsg net/socket.c:2762 [inline] do_recvmmsg+0x2e5/0x710 net/socket.c:2856 __sys_recvmmsg net/socket.c:2935 [inline] __do_sys_recvmmsg net/socket.c:2958 [inline] __se_sys_recvmmsg net/socket.c:2951 [inline] __x64_sys_recvmmsg+0xe2/0x160 net/socket.c:2951 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

value changed: 0x0000000000000000 -> 0x0000000000001000

Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: CPU: 1 PID: 23037 Comm: syz-executor.2 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc4-syzkaller-00195-g5a57b48fdfcb #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 03/02/2023

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53824?

How do I fix CVE-2023-53824?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53824 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53824, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53824, GHSA-74c2-58xj-46fw, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53824.