In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, sockmap: Check for any of tcp_bpf_prots when cloning a listener A listening socket linked to a sockmap has its sk_prot overridden. It points to one of the struct proto variants in tcp_bpf_prots. The variant depends on the socket's family and which sockmap programs are attached. A child socket cloned from a TCP listener initially inherits their sk_prot. But before cloning is finished, we restore the child's proto to the listener's original non-tcp_bpf_prots one. This happens in tcp_create_openreq_child -> tcp_bpf_clone. Today, in tcp_bpf_clone we detect if the child's proto should be restored by checking only for the TCP_BPF_BASE proto variant. This is not correct. The sk_prot of listening socket linked to a sockmap can point to to any variant in tcp_bpf_prots. If the listeners sk_prot happens to be not the TCP_BPF_BASE variant, then the child socket unintentionally is left if the inherited sk_prot by tcp_bpf_clone. This leads to issues like infinite recursion on close [1], because the child state is otherwise not set up for use with tcp_bpf_prot operations. Adjust the check in tcp_bpf_clone to detect all of tcp_bpf_prots variants. Note that it wouldn't be sufficient to check the socket state when overriding the sk_prot in tcp_bpf_update_proto in order to always use the TCP_BPF_BASE variant for listening sockets. Since commit b8b8315e39ff ("bpf, sockmap: Remove unhash handler for BPF sockmap usage") it is possible for a socket to transition to TCP_LISTEN state while already linked to a sockmap, e.g. connect() -> insert into map -> connect(AF_UNSPEC) -> listen(). [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-52986 is rated Low Risk (24.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2025-10-30 | 0.09% | 0.03% | -0.06% |
| 2 | 2025-06-15 | 0.02% | 0.09% | +0.07% |
| 3 | 2025-03-28 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2023-52986 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-52986 |
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52986 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52986/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2023-52986 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 146, not-affected 143, released 116, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-52986 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.7, < 5.10.168 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.11, < 5.15.93 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.16, < 6.1.11 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* |