CVE-2023-53821 | ip6_vti: fix slab-use-after-free in decode_session6

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ip6_vti: fix slab-use-after-free in decode_session6 When ipv6_vti device is set to the qdisc of the sfb type, the cb field of the sent skb may be modified during enqueuing. Then, slab-use-after-free may occur when ipv6_vti device sends IPv6 packets. The stack information is as follows: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in decode_session6+0x103f/0x1890 Read of size 1 at addr ffff88802e08edc2 by task swapper/0/0 CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.4.0-next-20230707-00001-g84e2cad7f979 #410 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-1.fc33 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack_lvl+0xd9/0x150 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x2c/0x3c0 kasan_report+0x11d/0x130 decode_session6+0x103f/0x1890 __xfrm_decode_session+0x54/0xb0 vti6_tnl_xmit+0x3e6/0x1ee0 dev_hard_start_xmit+0x187/0x700 sch_direct_xmit+0x1a3/0xc30 __qdisc_run+0x510/0x17a0 __dev_queue_xmit+0x2215/0x3b10 neigh_connected_output+0x3c2/0x550 ip6_finish_output2+0x55a/0x1550 ip6_finish_output+0x6b9/0x1270 ip6_output+0x1f1/0x540 ndisc_send_skb+0xa63/0x1890 ndisc_send_rs+0x132/0x6f0 addrconf_rs_timer+0x3f1/0x870 call_timer_fn+0x1a0/0x580 expire_timers+0x29b/0x4b0 run_timer_softirq+0x326/0x910 __do_softirq+0x1d4/0x905 irq_exit_rcu+0xb7/0x120 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x97/0xc0 </IRQ> Allocated by task 9176: kasan_save_stack+0x22/0x40 kasan_set_track+0x25/0x30 __kasan_slab_alloc+0x7f/0x90 kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x1cd/0x410 kmalloc_reserve+0x165/0x270 __alloc_skb+0x129/0x330 netlink_sendmsg+0x9b1/0xe30 sock_sendmsg+0xde/0x190 ____sys_sendmsg+0x739/0x920 ___sys_sendmsg+0x110/0x1b0 __sys_sendmsg+0xf7/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Freed by task 9176: kasan_save_stack+0x22/0x40 kasan_set_track+0x25/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x2b/0x40 ____kasan_slab_free+0x160/0x1c0 slab_free_freelist_hook+0x11b/0x220 kmem_cache_free+0xf0/0x490 skb_free_head+0x17f/0x1b0 skb_release_data+0x59c/0x850 consume_skb+0xd2/0x170 netlink_unicast+0x54f/0x7f0 netlink_sendmsg+0x926/0xe30 sock_sendmsg+0xde/0x190 ____sys_sendmsg+0x739/0x920 ___sys_sendmsg+0x110/0x1b0 __sys_sendmsg+0xf7/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88802e08ed00 which belongs to the cache skbuff_small_head of size 640 The buggy address is located 194 bytes inside of freed 640-byte region [ffff88802e08ed00, ffff88802e08ef80) As commit f855691975bb ("xfrm6: Fix the nexthdr offset in _decode_session6.") showed, xfrm_decode_session was originally intended only for the receive path. IP6CB(skb)->nhoff is not set during transmission. Therefore, set the cb field in the skb to 0 before sending packets.

Published: 2025-12-09 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53821 is rated Low Risk (5.8/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53821

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 2025-12-09 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53821

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53821

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53821

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-53821 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-2023-53821
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53821
suse medium CVE-2023-53821 severity moderate: SUSE including 418 source package names (2.1.3-6.115:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-39.1.21.16, 2.1.3-7.146:kernel-rt-6.4.0-40.1, …), 892 product×package rows across 167 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (167 product lines)): Fixed 434, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 227. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53821/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53821 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 175, released 134, not-affected 66, needed 19, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53821

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53821

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2023-53821

cvelogic Threat Intelligence