CVE-2023-53698

High

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: fix refcount underflow in error path Fix a refcount underflow problem reported by syzbot that can happen when a system is running out of memory. If xp_alloc_tx_descs() fails, and it can only fail due to not having enough memory, then the error path is triggered. In this error path, the refcount of the pool is decremented as it has incremented before. However, the reference to the pool in the socket was not nulled. This means that when the socket is closed later, the socket teardown logic will think that there is a pool attached to the socket and try to decrease the refcount again, leading to a refcount underflow. I chose this fix as it involved adding just a single line. Another option would have been to move xp_get_pool() and the assignment of xs->pool to after the if-statement and using xs_umem->pool instead of xs->pool in the whole if-statement resulting in somewhat simpler code, but this would have led to much more churn in the code base perhaps making it harder to backport.

SeverityHigh
CVSS7.8
Exploit probability—
ProductLinux
PublishedOct 22, 2025
First seenOct 22, 2025

How to fix

Update
  • Linux Linux789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3, 15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777, 3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072, 85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d, 5.15.127, 5.18 or later

Affected products

ProductAffected versionsFixed in
Linux Linuxf7019562f142bc041f9cde63af338d1886585923 ≤ v < 789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3, ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e ≤ v < 15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777, ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e ≤ v < 3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072, ba3beec2ec1d3b4fd8672ca6e781dac4b3267f6e ≤ v < 85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d, 9f0c8a9d4ef1b9ebee0e4ac2495fe790727044aa, 5.15.47 ≤ v < 5.15.127, 5.17.15 ≤ v < 5.18, 5.18789fcd94c9cac133dd4d96e193188661aca9f6c3, 15b453cf7348973217558235b9ece2ee5fea6777, 3e7722c31d4167eb7f3ffd35aba52cab69b79072, 85c2c79a07302fe68a1ad5cc449458cc559e314d, 5.15.127, 5.18

Check your version

Choose the product and enter the version you run to see whether it falls in the affected range.

In the Intelligence 360 plan

Attack Surface Management

See the assets tied to your domains, the technologies they run and known vulnerabilities in one list.

CVE-2023-53698 · Linux · Dark Radar