CVE-2023-53798

linux: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes It i...

CVE-2023-53798 is fixed in 37 products on 1 platform, first by ALAS2023-2023-184, released May 25, 2023. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.

High
CVSS
8.0
important
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0022
12th percentile

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:1048 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065 netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline] netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365 netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Uninit was stored to memory at: tun_get_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3544 __ethtool_get_link_ksettings+0x17b/0x260 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:441 ethnl_set_linkmodes+0xee/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:327 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:1048 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065 netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline] netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365 netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Uninit was stored to memory at: tun_set_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3553 ethtool_set_link_ksettings+0x600/0x690 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:609 __dev_ethtool net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3024 [inline] dev_ethtool+0x1db9/0x2a70 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3078 dev_ioctl+0xb07/0x1270 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:524 sock_do_ioctl+0x295/0x540 net/socket.c:1213 sock_i ---truncated---

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
bpftool · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
bpftool · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
bpftool-debuginfo · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel · rocky 8 0:4.18.0-553.123.1.el8_10.cloud.0.1 RXSA-2024:3138 May 29, 2026
kernel-abi-stablelists · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-core · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debug · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debug-core · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debug-devel · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debug-modules · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debug-modules-extra · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-debuginfo · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-devel · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-devel · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-doc · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-headers · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-libbpf · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-libbpf-devel · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-libbpf-static · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-livepatch-6.1.29-47.49 · amzn 2023 1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-modules · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-modules-extra · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-tools · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-tools · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-tools-debuginfo · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-tools-devel · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
kernel-tools-libs · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-tools-libs-devel · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-zfcpdump · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-zfcpdump-core · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-zfcpdump-devel · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-zfcpdump-modules · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
linux · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) 6.1.37-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798 Dec 9, 2025
linux · Debian 13.5 (trixie) 6.3.7-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798 Dec 9, 2025
linux · Debian 14 6.3.7-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798 Dec 9, 2025
perf · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
perf · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
perf-debuginfo · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
python3-perf · RHEL 8 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 RHSA-2024:3138 May 22, 2024
python3-perf · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023
python3-perf-debuginfo · amzn 2023 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2023-184 May 25, 2023

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