CVE-2023-53240 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2023-53240
Vulnerability Scoring

Analysis In Progress
Analysis In Progress

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity:
    Attack Complexity Analysis In Progress
  • Attack Vector:
    Attack Vector Under Analysis
  • Privileges Required: None
    No authentication is required for exploitation.
  • Scope:
    Impact is confined to the initially vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: None
    No user interaction is necessary for exploitation.

CVE-2023-53240 Details

Status: Awaiting Analysis

Published on: 15 Sep 2025, 15:15 UTC

CVSS Release:

CVE-2023-53240 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2023-53240: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: check IFF_UP earlier in Tx path Xsk Tx can be triggered via either sendmsg() or poll() syscalls. These two paths share a call to common function xsk_xmit() which has two sanity checks within. A pseudo code example to show the two paths: __xsk_sendmsg() : xsk_poll(): if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) if (unlikely(!xsk_is_bound(xs))) return -ENXIO; return mask; if (unlikely(need_wait)) (...) return -EOPNOTSUPP; xsk_xmit() mark napi id (...) xsk_xmit() xsk_xmit(): if (unlikely(!(xs->dev->flags & IFF_UP))) return -ENETDOWN; if (unlikely(!xs->tx)) return -ENOBUFS; As it can be observed above, in sendmsg() napi id can be marked on interface that was not brought up and this causes a NULL ptr dereference: [31757.505631] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018 [31757.512710] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [31757.517936] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [31757.523149] PGD 0 P4D 0 [31757.525726] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [31757.530154] CPU: 26 PID: 95641 Comm: xdpsock Not tainted 6.2.0-rc5+ #40 [31757.536871] Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.02.01.0008.031920191559 03/19/2019 [31757.547457] RIP: 0010:xsk_sendmsg+0xde/0x180 [31757.551799] Code: 00 75 a2 48 8b 00 a8 04 75 9b 84 d2 74 69 8b 85 14 01 00 00 85 c0 75 1b 48 8b 85 28 03 00 00 48 8b 80 98 00 00 00 48 8b 40 20 <8b> 40 18 89 85 14 01 00 00 8b bd 14 01 00 00 81 ff 00 01 00 00 0f [31757.570840] RSP: 0018:ffffc90034f27dc0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [31757.576143] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffc90034f27e18 RCX: 0000000000000000 [31757.583389] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffffc90034f27e18 RDI: ffff88984cf3c100 [31757.590631] RBP: ffff88984714a800 R08: ffff88984714a800 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.597877] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 00000000fffffffa [31757.605123] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.612364] FS: 00007fb4c5931180(0000) GS:ffff88afdfa00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [31757.620571] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [31757.626406] CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000184b41c003 CR4: 00000000007706e0 [31757.633648] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [31757.640894] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [31757.648139] PKRU: 55555554 [31757.650894] Call Trace: [31757.653385] <TASK> [31757.655524] sock_sendmsg+0x8f/0xa0 [31757.659077] ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x12/0x70 [31757.663416] __sys_sendto+0xfc/0x170 [31757.667051] ? do_sched_setscheduler+0xdb/0x1b0 [31757.671658] __x64_sys_sendto+0x20/0x30 [31757.675557] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 [31757.679197] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [31757.687969] Code: 8e f6 ff 44 8b 4c 24 2c 4c 8b 44 24 20 41 89 c4 44 8b 54 24 28 48 8b 54 24 18 b8 2c 00 00 00 48 8b 74 24 10 8b 7c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3a 44 89 e7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 b5 8e f6 ff 48 [31757.707007] RSP: 002b:00007ffd49c73c70 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c [31757.714694] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055a996565380 RCX: 00007fb4c5727c16 [31757.721939] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003 [31757.729184] RBP: 0000000000000040 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [31757.736429] R10: 0000000000000040 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000 [31757.743673] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [31757.754940] </TASK> To fix this, let's make xsk_xmit a function that will be responsible for generic Tx, where RCU is handled accordingly and pull out sanity checks and xs->zc handling. Populate sanity checks to __xsk_sendmsg() and xsk_poll().

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2023-53240

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2023-53240 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2023-53240

No exploitability data is available for CVE-2023-53240.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2023-53240, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2023-53240, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: None
    CVE-2023-53240 does not compromise confidentiality.
  • Integrity: None
    CVE-2023-53240 does not impact data integrity.
  • Availability: None
    CVE-2023-53240 does not affect system availability.

CVE-2023-53240 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

Unknown

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