CVE-2023-53489

EPSS 0.0%
  • Published: 2025-10-01T12:15:51.950

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_queues()”) tried to fix it
by calling skb_queue_purge() during close(). However, there is a
small chance that skb queued in a qdisc or device could be put
into the error queue after the skb_queue_purge() call.

In __skb_tstamp_tx(), the cloned skb should not have a reference
to the ubuf to remove the circular dependency, but skb_clone() does
not call skb_copy_ubufs() for zerocopy skb. So, we need to call
skb_orphan_frags_rx() for the cloned skb to call skb_copy_ubufs().

[0]:
BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff88800c6d2d00 (size 1152):
comm “syz-executor392”, pid 264, jiffies 4294785440 (age 13.044s)
hex dump (first 32 bytes):
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 cd af e8 81 00 00 00 00 …………….
02 00 07 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 …@…………
backtrace:
[] sk_prot_alloc+0x64/0x2a0 net/core/sock.c:2024
[] sk_alloc+0x3b/0x800 net/core/sock.c:2083
[] inet_create net/ipv4/af_inet.c:319 [inline]
[] inet_create+0x31e/0xe40 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:245
[] __sock_create+0x2ab/0x550 net/socket.c:1515
[] sock_create net/socket.c:1566 [inline]
[] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1603 [inline]
[] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1588 [inline]
[] __sys_socket+0x138/0x250 net/socket.c:1636
[] __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1649 [inline]
[] __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1647 [inline]
[] __x64_sys_socket+0x73/0xb0 net/socket.c:1647
[] do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
[] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
[] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff888017633a00 (size 240):
comm “syz-executor392”, pid 264, jiffies 4294785440 (age 13.044s)
hex dump (first 32 bytes):
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 …………….
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2d 6d 0c 80 88 ff ff ………-m…..
backtrace:
[] __alloc_skb+0x229/0x320 net/core/skbuff.c:497
[] alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1265 [inline]
[] sock_omalloc+0xaa/0x190 net/core/sock.c:2596
[] msg_zerocopy_alloc net/core/skbuff.c:1294 [inline]
[]
—truncated—

Related CVE by CWE

No related CWE found.

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How to fix CVE-2023-53489

CVE-2023-53489 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: 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’, […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Oct 01, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Nov 12, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.