7.5

CVE-2023-46838: Linux: netback processing of zero-length transmit fragment

Modified
AliasesALPINE-CVE-2023-46838UBUNTU-CVE-2023-46838DEBIAN-CVE-2023-46838
Published 29-01-2024Last modified 04-11-2025

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-46838 is a high (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 1.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Prioritisesevere

Severe, CVSS 7.5 (CVE.org); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources; EPSS 1% (FIRST, 03-11-2026)

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
7.5/10
010
High · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
1.18%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 27 · Related 23
DLA-3840-1DLA-3841-1MGASA-2024-0032MGASA-2024-0033SUSE-SU-2024:0463-1SUSE-SU-2024:0468-1

Timeline

  1. 29-01-2024
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 04-11-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Transmit requests in Xen's virtual network protocol can consist of multiple parts. While not really useful, except for the initial part any of them may be of zero length, i.e. carry no data at all. Besides a certain initial portion of the to be transferred data, these parts are directly translated into what Linux calls SKB fragments. Such converted request parts can, when for a particular SKB they are all of length zero, lead to a de-reference of NULL in core networking code.

CVSS metrics

6 scores · 5 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

1.18%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

68%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 1.18% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu115 products
  • linux< 4.15.0-223.235 | < 5.4.0-176.196 | < 5.15.0-102.112
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws< 4.15.0-1166.179 | < 5.4.0-1122.132 | < 5.15.0-1057.63
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Debian2 products
Alpine1 product
  • linux-lts< 5.15.147-r1 | < 6.1.74-r0
Fedoraproject1 product
Linux1 product
  • linux_kernel≥ 4.14, < 4.19.306 | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.268 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.209 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.148 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.75 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.6.14 | ≥ 6.7, < 6.7.2

5 vendors · 120 products

References

26 links
Show all 26 references