Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53798)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-53798). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

ethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes

It is not possible to set the number of lanes when setting link modes
using the legacy IOCTL ethtool interface. Since 'struct
ethtool_link_ksettings' is not initialized in this path, drivers receive
an uninitialized number of lanes in 'struct
ethtool_link_ksettings::lanes'.

When this information is later queried from drivers, it results in the
ethtool code making decisions based on uninitialized memory, leading to
the following KMSAN splat [1]. In practice, this most likely only
happens with the tun driver that simply returns whatever it got in the
set operation.

As far as I can tell, this uninitialized memory is not leaked to user
space thanks to the 'ethtool_ops->cap_link_lanes_supported' check in
linkmodes_prepare_data().

Fix by initializing the structure in the IOCTL path. Did not find any
more call sites that pass an uninitialized structure when calling
'ethtool_ops::set_link_ksettings()'.

[1]
BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline]
BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333
ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline]
ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333
ethnl_default_set_doit+0x88d/0xde0 net/ethtool/netlink.c:640
genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 [inline]
genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c…

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-2023-53798 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-53798" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-53798 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3 — 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 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3.

🛡️ 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 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3
```
ステージング環境で 5.15.112, 6.1.29, 6.2.16, 6.3.3 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":"5.12.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.112"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.29"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.2.16"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.3.0"},{"fixed":"6.3.3"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798 linux Fixed in: 6.1.37-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53798 linux-hwe-edge