# CVE-2023-54247: bpf: Silence a warning in btf_type_id_size()

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning in the BPF subsystem, potentially causing a denial of service or system instability.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54247, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54247, GHSA-xm68-266p-wmjp, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-54247, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54247

## What is CVE-2023-54247?

CVE-2023-54247 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:

bpf: Silence a warning in btf_type_id_size()

syzbot reported a warning in [1] with the following stacktrace:
  WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 5005 at kernel/bpf/btf.c:1988 btf_type_id_size+0x2d9/0x9d0 kernel/bpf/btf.c:1988
  ...
  RIP: 0010:btf_type_id_size+0x2d9/0x9d0 kernel/bpf/btf.c:1988
  ...
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   map_check_btf kernel/bpf/syscall.c:1024 [inline]
   map_create+0x1157/0x1860 kernel/bpf/syscall.c:1198
   __sys_bpf+0x127f/0x5420 kernel/bpf/syscall.c:5040
   __do_sys_bpf kernel/bpf/syscall.c:5162 [inline]
   __se_sys_bpf kernel/bpf/syscall.c:5160 [inline]
   __x64_sys_bpf+0x79/0xc0 kernel/bpf/syscall.c:5160
   do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
   do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

With the following btf
  [1] DECL_TAG 'a' type_id=4 component_idx=-1
  [2] PTR '(anon)' type_id=0
  [3] TYPE_TAG 'a' type_id=2
  [4] VAR 'a' type_id=3, linkage=static
and when the bpf_attr.btf_key_type_id = 1 (DECL_TAG),
the following WARN_ON_ONCE in btf_type_id_size() is triggered:
  if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!btf_type_is_modifier(size_type) &&
                   !btf_type_is_var(size_type)))
          return NULL;

Note that 'return NULL' is the correct behavior as we don't want
a DECL_TAG type to be used as a btf_{key,value}_type_id even
for the case like 'DECL_TAG -> STRUCT'. So there
is no correctness issue here, we just want to silence warning.

To silence the warning, I added DECL_TAG as one of kinds in
btf_type_nosize() which will cause btf_type_id_size() returning
NULL earlier without the warning.

  [1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/000000000000e0df8d05fc75ba86@google.com/

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54247?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54247?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54247 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54247 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54247 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54247 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-2023-54247 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-2023-54247/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54247/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54247
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54247
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54247

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54247/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.