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---
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53798 is rated Low Risk (6.5/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.17%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.
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 | 2026-06-15 | 0.02% | 0.17% | +0.15% |
| 2 | 2025-12-09 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (2 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
unimportant | CVE-2023-53798 unimportant 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-2023-53798 |
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53798 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2023-53798 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 175 product×package rows across 38 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (38 product lines)): Known Not Affected 175. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53798/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2023-53798 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 172, released 112, not-affected 110, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53798 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.12, < 5.15.112 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.12, < 6.1.29 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.12, < 6.2.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.12, < 6.3.3 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.12, < 6.4 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |