# CVE-2023-54238: mlx5: fix skb leak while fifo resync and push

> A memory leak in the mlx5 network driver can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service during PTP resync operations.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54238, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54238, GHSA-48xp-xhc9-g2gm, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54238

## What is CVE-2023-54238?

CVE-2023-54238 is a high-severity 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:

mlx5: fix skb leak while fifo resync and push

During ptp resync operation SKBs were poped from the fifo but were never
freed neither by napi_consume nor by dev_kfree_skb_any. Add call to
napi_consume_skb to properly free SKBs.

Another leak was happening because mlx5e_skb_fifo_has_room() had an error
in the check. Comparing free running counters works well unless C promotes
the types to something wider than the counter. In this case counters are
u16 but the result of the substraction is promouted to int and it causes
wrong result (negative value) of the check when producer have already
overlapped but consumer haven't yet. Explicit cast to u16 fixes the issue.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54238?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54238?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54238 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54238 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54238 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54238 is a high-severity 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-2023-54238 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-2023-54238/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54238/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54238
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54238
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54238

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54238/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.