CVE-2023-4459: Kernel: vmxnet3: null pointer dereference in vmxnet3_rq_cleanup()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-08-21 · updated 2026-10-08
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in vmxnet3_rq_cleanup in drivers/net/vmxnet3/vmxnet3_drv.c in the networking sub-component in vmxnet3 in the Linux Kernel. This issue may allow a local attacker with normal user privilege to cause a denial of service due to a missing sanity check during cleanup.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 5.18 — fixed in 5.18
Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.0, 9.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.18. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0412
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1250
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1306
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1367
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1382
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:2006
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:2008
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4459
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2219268
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/edf410cb74dc612fd47ef5be319c5a0bcd6e6ccd
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0412
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1250

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