# CVE-2023-54236: net/net_failover: fix txq exceeding warning

> A flaw in the Linux kernel net_failover module can cause a warning and potential instability when transmitting packets if the primary device has more than 16 TX queues.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54236, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54236, GHSA-9c88-mg4g-wxx2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54236

## What is CVE-2023-54236?

CVE-2023-54236 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/net_failover: fix txq exceeding warning

The failover txq is inited as 16 queues.
when a packet is transmitted from the failover device firstly,
the failover device will select the queue which is returned from
the primary device if the primary device is UP and running.
If the primary device txq is bigger than the default 16,
it can lead to the following warning:
eth0 selects TX queue 18, but real number of TX queues is 16

The warning backtrace is:
[   32.146376] CPU: 18 PID: 9134 Comm: chronyd Tainted: G            E      6.2.8-1.el7.centos.x86_64 #1
[   32.147175] Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.10.2-3.el7_4.1 04/01/2014
[   32.147730] Call Trace:
[   32.147971]  <TASK>
[   32.148183]  dump_stack_lvl+0x48/0x70
[   32.148514]  dump_stack+0x10/0x20
[   32.148820]  netdev_core_pick_tx+0xb1/0xe0
[   32.149180]  __dev_queue_xmit+0x529/0xcf0
[   32.149533]  ? __check_object_size.part.0+0x21c/0x2c0
[   32.149967]  ip_finish_output2+0x278/0x560
[   32.150327]  __ip_finish_output+0x1fe/0x2f0
[   32.150690]  ip_finish_output+0x2a/0xd0
[   32.151032]  ip_output+0x7a/0x110
[   32.151337]  ? __pfx_ip_finish_output+0x10/0x10
[   32.151733]  ip_local_out+0x5e/0x70
[   32.152054]  ip_send_skb+0x19/0x50
[   32.152366]  udp_send_skb.isra.0+0x163/0x3a0
[   32.152736]  udp_sendmsg+0xba8/0xec0
[   32.153060]  ? __folio_memcg_unlock+0x25/0x60
[   32.153445]  ? __pfx_ip_generic_getfrag+0x10/0x10
[   32.153854]  ? sock_has_perm+0x85/0xa0
[   32.154190]  inet_sendmsg+0x6d/0x80
[   32.154508]  ? inet_sendmsg+0x6d/0x80
[   32.154838]  sock_sendmsg+0x62/0x70
[   32.155152]  ____sys_sendmsg+0x134/0x290
[   32.155499]  ___sys_sendmsg+0x81/0xc0
[   32.155828]  ? _get_random_bytes.part.0+0x79/0x1a0
[   32.156240]  ? ip4_datagram_release_cb+0x5f/0x1e0
[   32.156649]  ? get_random_u16+0x69/0xf0
[   32.156989]  ? __fget_light+0xcf/0x110
[   32.157326]  __sys_sendmmsg+0xc4/0x210
[   32.157657]  ? __sys_connect+0xb7/0xe0
[   32.157995]  ? __audit_syscall_entry+0xce/0x140
[   32.158388]  ? syscall_trace_enter.isra.0+0x12c/0x1a0
[   32.158820]  __x64_sys_sendmmsg+0x24/0x30
[   32.159171]  do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90
[   32.159493]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

Fix that by reducing txq number as the non-existent primary-dev does.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54236?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54236?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54236 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54236 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54236 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54236 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54236 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-2023-54236/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54236/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54236
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54236
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54236

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54236/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.