# CVE-2023-54037: ice: prevent NULL pointer deref during reload > A local attacker with high privileges can cause a kernel crash by triggering a NULL pointer dereference in the Intel ice driver during device reload. - **Severity:** Not scored - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** An administrator - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 24 Dec 2025 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54037, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54037, GHSA-fxpr-g6q4-mmqw, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54037 ## What is CVE-2023-54037? CVE-2023-54037 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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: ice: prevent NULL pointer deref during reload Calling ethtool during reload can lead to call trace, because VSI isn't configured for some time, but netdev is alive. To fix it add rtnl lock for VSI deconfig and config. Set ::num_q_vectors to 0 after freeing and add a check for ::tx/rx_rings in ring related ethtool ops. Add proper unroll of filters in ice_start_eth(). Reproduction: $watch -n 0.1 -d 'ethtool -g enp24s0f0np0' $devlink dev reload pci/0000:18:00.0 action driver_reinit Call trace before fix: [66303.926205] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [66303.926259] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [66303.926286] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [66303.926311] PGD 0 P4D 0 [66303.926332] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI [66303.926358] CPU: 4 PID: 933821 Comm: ethtool Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE 6.4.0-rc5+ #1 [66303.926400] Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.00.01.0014.070920180847 07/09/2018 [66303.926446] RIP: 0010:ice_get_ringparam+0x22/0x50 [ice] [66303.926649] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 8b 87 c0 09 00 00 c7 46 04 e0 1f 00 00 c7 46 10 e0 1f 00 00 48 8b 50 20 <48> 8b 12 0f b7 52 3a 89 56 14 48 8b 40 28 48 8b 00 0f b7 40 58 48 [66303.926722] RSP: 0018:ffffad40472f39c8 EFLAGS: 00010246 [66303.926749] RAX: ffff98a8ada05828 RBX: ffff98a8c46dd060 RCX: ffffad40472f3b48 [66303.926781] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff98a8c46dd068 RDI: ffff98a8b23c4000 [66303.926811] RBP: ffffad40472f3b48 R08: 00000000000337b0 R09: 0000000000000000 [66303.926843] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000100 R12: ffff98a8b23c4000 [66303.926874] R13: ffff98a8c46dd060 R14: 000000000000000f R15: ffffad40472f3a50 [66303.926906] FS: 00007f6397966740(0000) GS:ffff98b390900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [66303.926941] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [66303.926967] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000011ac20002 CR4: 00000000007706e0 [66303.926999] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [66303.927029] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [66303.927060] PKRU: 55555554 [66303.927075] Call Trace: [66303.927094] [66303.927111] ? __die+0x23/0x70 [66303.927140] ? page_fault_oops+0x171/0x4e0 [66303.927176] ? exc_page_fault+0x7f/0x180 [66303.927209] ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 [66303.927244] ? ice_get_ringparam+0x22/0x50 [ice] [66303.927433] rings_prepare_data+0x62/0x80 [66303.927469] ethnl_default_doit+0xe2/0x350 [66303.927501] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.0+0xe3/0x140 [66303.927538] genl_rcv_msg+0x1b1/0x2c0 [66303.927561] ? __pfx_ethnl_default_doit+0x10/0x10 [66303.927590] ? __pfx_genl_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 [66303.927615] netlink_rcv_skb+0x58/0x110 [66303.927644] genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 [66303.927665] netlink_unicast+0x19e/0x290 [66303.927691] netlink_sendmsg+0x254/0x4d0 [66303.927717] sock_sendmsg+0x93/0xa0 [66303.927743] __sys_sendto+0x126/0x170 [66303.927780] __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 [66303.928593] do_syscall_64+0x5d/0x90 [66303.929370] ? __count_memcg_events+0x60/0xa0 [66303.930146] ? count_memcg_events.constprop.0+0x1a/0x30 [66303.930920] ? handle_mm_fault+0x9e/0x350 [66303.931688] ? do_user_addr_fault+0x258/0x740 [66303.932452] ? exc_page_fault+0x7f/0x180 [66303.933193] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54037? ## How do I fix CVE-2023-54037? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2023-54037 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54037 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54037 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2023-54037 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-2023-54037 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-2023-54037/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54037/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54037 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54037 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54037 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54037/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.