# 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. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53798 - Priority: High - CVSS: 8.0 (important) - EPSS: 0.0022 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: May 25, 2023 ## Description 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 | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | bpftool RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | bpftool amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | bpftool-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel rocky 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.123.1.el8_10.cloud.0.1 | [RXSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rxsa-2024-3138.md) | May 29, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-abi-stablelists RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-core RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debug RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debug-core RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debug-devel RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debug-modules RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debug-modules-extra RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-devel RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-devel amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-doc RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-headers amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-libbpf amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-libbpf-devel amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-libbpf-static amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-6.1.29-47.49 amzn 2023 | 1.0-0.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-modules RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-modules-extra RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-tools RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-tools amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-tools-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-tools-devel amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | kernel-tools-libs RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-tools-libs-devel RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump-core RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump-devel RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump-modules RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | linux Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.1.37-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2023-53798.md) | Dec 9, 2025 | | Linux | linux Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.3.7-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2023-53798.md) | Dec 9, 2025 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 6.3.7-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53798](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2023-53798.md) | Dec 9, 2025 | | Linux | perf RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | perf amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | perf-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | python3-perf RHEL 8 | 0:4.18.0-553.el8_10 | [RHSA-2024:3138](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/rhsa-2024-3138.md) | May 22, 2024 | | Linux | python3-perf amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | | Linux | python3-perf-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 6.1.29-47.49.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2023-184](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2023-184.md) | May 25, 2023 | --- Data as of 2026-11-11T13:47:35Z UTC. 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