Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53489)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53489). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

tcp/udp: Fix memleaks of sk and zerocopy skbs with TX timestamp.

syzkaller reported [0] memory leaks of an UDP socket and ZEROCOPY
skbs. We can reproduce the problem with these sequences:

sk = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0)
sk.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_TIMESTAMPING, SOF_TIMESTAMPING_TX_SOFTWARE)
sk.setsockopt(SOL_SOCKET, SO_ZEROCOPY, 1)
sk.sendto(b'', MSG_ZEROCOPY, ('127.0.0.1', 53))
sk.close()

sendmsg() calls msg_zerocopy_alloc(), which allocates a skb, sets
skb->cb->ubuf.refcnt to 1, and calls sock_hold(). Here, struct
ubuf_info_msgzc indirectly holds a refcnt of the socket. When the
skb is sent, __skb_tstamp_tx() clones it and puts the clone into
the socket's error queue with the TX timestamp.

When the original skb is received locally, skb_copy_ubufs() calls
skb_unclone(), and pskb_expand_head() increments skb->cb->ubuf.refcnt.
This additional count is decremented while freeing the skb, but struct
ubuf_info_msgzc still has a refcnt, so __msg_zerocopy_callback() is
not called.

The last refcnt is not released unless we retrieve the TX timestamped
skb by recvmsg(). Since we clear the error queue in inet_sock_destruct()
after the socket's refcnt reaches 0, there is a circular dependency.
If we close() the socket holding such skbs, we never call sock_put()
and leak the count, sk, and skb.

TCP has the same problem, and commit e0c8bccd40fc ("net: stream:
purge sk_error_queue in sk_stream_kill…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-53489 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53489" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53489 (Kernel)
Patched: 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2
```
ステージング環境で 4.14.315, 4.19.283, 5.4.243, 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.14.0"},{"fixed":"4.14.315"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.15.0"},{"fixed":"4.19.283"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.243"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.180"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.111"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.28"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.2.15"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.3.0"},{"fixed":"6.3.2"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53489 linux Fixed in: 5.10.191-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53489 linux-azure