CVE-2023-53426: xsk: Fix xsk_diag use-after-free error during socket cleanup

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 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: 2025-09-18 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: Fix xsk_diag use-after-free error during socket cleanup Fix a use-after-free error that is possible if the xsk_diag interface is used after the socket has been unbound from the device. This can happen either due to the socket being closed or the device disappearing. In the early days of AF_XDP, the way we tested that a socket was not bound to a device was to simply check if the netdevice pointer in the xsk socket structure was NULL. Later, a better system was introduced by having an explicit state variable in the xsk socket struct. For example, the state of a socket that is on the way to being closed and has been unbound from the device is XSK_UNBOUND. The commit in the Fixes tag below deleted the old way of signalling that a socket is unbound, setting dev to NULL. This in the belief that all code using the old way had been exterminated. That was unfortunately not true as the xsk diagnostics code was still using the old way and thus does not work as intended when a socket is going down. Fix this by introducing a test against the state variable. If the socket is in the state XSK_UNBOUND, simply abort the diagnostic's netlink operation.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.15.33 before 5.15.132; from 5.16.19 before 5.17; from 5.17.2 before 6.1.54; from 6.2 before 6.5.4 — fixed in 5.15.132, 5.17, 6.1.54, 6.5.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.132, 5.17, 6.1.54, 6.5.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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