CVE-2023-54048 RDMA/bnxt_re: Prevent handling any completions after qp destroy
A race condition in the Linux kernel RDMA driver allows a kernel panic when completion handlers run after queue pair destruction.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-54048?
CVE-2023-54048 is a high-severity 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:
RDMA/bnxt_re: Prevent handling any completions after qp destroy
HW may generate completions that indicates QP is destroyed. Driver should not be scheduling any more completion handlers for this QP, after the QP is destroyed. Since CQs are active during the QP destroy, driver may still schedule completion handlers. This can cause a race where the destroy_cq and poll_cq running simultaneously.
Snippet of kernel panic while doing bnxt_re driver load unload in loop. This indicates a poll after the CQ is freed.
[77786.481636] Call Trace: [77786.481640] <TASK> [77786.481644] bnxt_re_poll_cq+0x14a/0x620 [bnxt_re] [77786.481658] ? kvm_clock_read+0x14/0x30 [77786.481693] __ib_process_cq+0x57/0x190 [ib_core] [77786.481728] ib_cq_poll_work+0x26/0x80 [ib_core] [77786.481761] process_one_work+0x1e5/0x3f0 [77786.481768] worker_thread+0x50/0x3a0 [77786.481785] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [77786.481790] kthread+0xe2/0x110 [77786.481794] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [77786.481797] ret_from_fork+0x2c/0x50
To avoid this, complete all completion handlers before returning the destroy QP. If free_cq is called soon after destroy_qp, IB stack will cancel the CQ work before invoking the destroy_cq verb and this will prevent any race mentioned.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54048?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54048?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54048 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54048 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54048, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54048, GHSA-4gfv-wqf7-r3g7, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-54048, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54048.