CVE-2023-54156 sfc: fix crash when reading stats while NIC is resetting
A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by reading network statistics while the NIC is resetting, leading to a denial of service.
- 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-2023-54156?
CVE-2023-54156 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:
sfc: fix crash when reading stats while NIC is resetting
efx_net_stats() (.ndo_get_stats64) can be called during an ethtool selftest, during which time nic_data->mc_stats is NULL as the NIC has been fini'd. In this case do not attempt to fetch the latest stats from the hardware, else we will crash on a NULL dereference: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000038 RIP efx_nic_update_stats abridged calltrace: efx_ef10_update_stats_pf efx_net_stats dev_get_stats dev_seq_printf_stats Skipping the read is safe, we will simply give out stale stats. To ensure that the free in efx_ef10_fini_nic() does not race against efx_ef10_update_stats_pf(), which could cause a TOCTTOU bug, take the efx->stats_lock in fini_nic (it is already held across update_stats).
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54156?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54156?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54156 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54156 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54156, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54156, GHSA-6qcc-hqxv-5rww, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54156.