# CVE-2023-54225: net: ipa: only reset hashed tables when supported

> A reference count underflow in the Linux kernel IPA driver can cause a denial of service during modem shutdown when hashed tables are unsupported.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54225, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54225, GHSA-r948-fj9p-588x, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54225

## What is CVE-2023-54225?

CVE-2023-54225 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:

net: ipa: only reset hashed tables when supported

Last year, the code that manages GSI channel transactions switched
from using spinlock-protected linked lists to using indexes into the
ring buffer used for a channel.  Recently, Google reported seeing
transaction reference count underflows occasionally during shutdown.

Doug Anderson found a way to reproduce the issue reliably, and
bisected the issue to the commit that eliminated the linked lists
and the lock.  The root cause was ultimately determined to be
related to unused transactions being committed as part of the modem
shutdown cleanup activity.  Unused transactions are not normally
expected (except in error cases).

The modem uses some ranges of IPA-resident memory, and whenever it
shuts down we zero those ranges.  In ipa_filter_reset_table() a
transaction is allocated to zero modem filter table entries.  If
hashing is not supported, hashed table memory should not be zeroed.
But currently nothing prevents that, and the result is an unused
transaction.  Something similar occurs when we zero routing table
entries for the modem.

By preventing any attempt to clear hashed tables when hashing is not
supported, the reference count underflow is avoided in this case.

Note that there likely remains an issue with properly freeing unused
transactions (if they occur due to errors).  This patch addresses
only the underflows that Google originally reported.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54225?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54225?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54225 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54225 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54225 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54225 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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-2023-54225 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-2023-54225/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54225/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54225
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54225
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54225

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54225/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.