CVE-2023-53103 | bonding: restore bond's IFF_SLAVE flag if a non-eth dev enslave fails

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bonding: restore bond's IFF_SLAVE flag if a non-eth dev enslave fails syzbot reported a warning[1] where the bond device itself is a slave and we try to enslave a non-ethernet device as the first slave which fails but then in the error path when ether_setup() restores the bond device it also clears all flags. In my previous fix[2] I restored the IFF_MASTER flag, but I didn't consider the case that the bond device itself might also be a slave with IFF_SLAVE set, so we need to restore that flag as well. Use the bond_ether_setup helper which does the right thing and restores the bond's flags properly. Steps to reproduce using a nlmon dev: $ ip l add nlmon0 type nlmon $ ip l add bond1 type bond $ ip l add bond2 type bond $ ip l set bond1 master bond2 $ ip l set dev nlmon0 master bond1 $ ip -d l sh dev bond1 22: bond1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,MASTER> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue master bond2 state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 (now bond1's IFF_SLAVE flag is gone and we'll hit a warning[3] if we try to delete it) [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=391c7b1f6522182899efba27d891f1743e8eb3ef [2] commit 7d5cd2ce5292 ("bonding: correctly handle bonding type change on enslave failure") [3] example warning: [ 27.008664] bond1: (slave nlmon0): The slave device specified does not support setting the MAC address [ 27.008692] bond1: (slave nlmon0): Error -95 calling set_mac_address [ 32.464639] bond1 (unregistering): Released all slaves [ 32.464685] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 32.464686] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 2004 at net/core/dev.c:10829 unregister_netdevice_many+0x72a/0x780 [ 32.464694] Modules linked in: br_netfilter bridge bonding virtio_net [ 32.464699] CPU: 1 PID: 2004 Comm: ip Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.18.0-rc3+ #47 [ 32.464703] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 [ 32.464704] RIP: 0010:unregister_netdevice_many+0x72a/0x780 [ 32.464707] Code: 99 fd ff ff ba 90 1a 00 00 48 c7 c6 f4 02 66 96 48 c7 c7 20 4d 35 96 c6 05 fa c7 2b 02 01 e8 be 6f 4a 00 0f 0b e9 73 fd ff ff <0f> 0b e9 5f fd ff ff 80 3d e3 c7 2b 02 00 0f 85 3b fd ff ff ba 59 [ 32.464710] RSP: 0018:ffffa006422d7820 EFLAGS: 00010206 [ 32.464712] RAX: ffff8f6e077140a0 RBX: ffffa006422d7888 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 32.464714] RDX: ffff8f6e12edbe58 RSI: 0000000000000296 RDI: ffffffff96d4a520 [ 32.464716] RBP: ffff8f6e07714000 R08: ffffffff96d63600 R09: ffffa006422d7728 [ 32.464717] R10: 0000000000000ec0 R11: ffffffff9698c988 R12: ffff8f6e12edb140 [ 32.464719] R13: dead000000000122 R14: dead000000000100 R15: ffff8f6e12edb140 [ 32.464723] FS: 00007f297c2f1740(0000) GS:ffff8f6e5d900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 32.464725] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 32.464726] CR2: 00007f297bf1c800 CR3: 00000000115e8000 CR4: 0000000000350ee0 [ 32.464730] Call Trace: [ 32.464763] <TASK> [ 32.464767] rtnl_dellink+0x13e/0x380 [ 32.464776] ? cred_has_capability.isra.0+0x68/0x100 [ 32.464780] ? __rtnl_unlock+0x33/0x60 [ 32.464783] ? bpf_lsm_capset+0x10/0x10 [ 32.464786] ? security_capable+0x36/0x50 [ 32.464790] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x14e/0x3b0 [ 32.464792] ? _copy_to_iter+0xb1/0x790 [ 32.464796] ? post_alloc_hook+0xa0/0x160 [ 32.464799] ? rtnl_calcit.isra.0+0x110/0x110 [ 32.464802] netlink_rcv_skb+0x50/0xf0 [ 32.464806] netlink_unicast+0x216/0x340 [ 32.464809] netlink_sendmsg+0x23f/0x480 [ 32.464812] sock_sendmsg+0x5e/0x60 [ 32.464815] ____sys_sendmsg+0x22c/0x270 [ 32.464818] ? import_iovec+0x17/0x20 [ 32.464821] ? sendmsg_copy_msghdr+0x59/0x90 [ 32.464823] ? do_set_pte+0xa0/0xe0 [ 32.464828] ___sys_sendmsg+0x81/0xc0 [ 32.464832] ? mod_objcg_state+0xc6/0x300 [ 32.464835] ? refill_obj_stock+0xa9/0x160 [ 32.464838] ? memcg_slab_free_hook+0x1a5/0x1f0 [ 32.464842] __sys_sendm ---truncated---

Published: 2025-05-02 Last update: 2025-11-10 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53103 is rated Low Risk (29.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53103

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 2026-02-26 0.02% 0.07% +0.05%
2 2025-05-03 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53103

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53103

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53103

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-53103 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53103
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53103
suse medium CVE-2023-53103 severity moderate: SUSE including 321 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 486 product×package rows across 45 product lines (Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-HPC-BYOS, … (45 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 129, Fixed 126. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53103/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53103 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 150, released 120, not-affected 94, needed 41, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53103

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53103

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.2.1, < 5.15.104 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.21 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.2.8 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 4.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.2:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.3:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-53103

cvelogic Threat Intelligence