CVE-2023-53999: net/mlx5e: TC, Fix internal port memory leak

Deferred
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53999DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53999
Published 24-12-2025Last modified 03-10-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-53999 is a vulnerability in linux with no CVSS score yet. EPSS estimates a 0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
0/100
0100
Minimal · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
Not scored
010
No CVSS score recorded
EPSS score
0.20%
0%100%
Low · +0.01 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 10 · Related 8

Timeline

  1. 24-12-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 03-10-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, Fix internal port memory leak The flow rule can be splited, and the extra post_act rules are added to post_act table. It's possible to trigger memleak when the rule forwards packets from internal port and over tunnel, in the case that, for example, CT 'new' state offload is allowed. As int_port object is assigned to the flow attribute of post_act rule, and its refcnt is incremented by mlx5e_tc_int_port_get(), but mlx5e_tc_int_port_put() is not called, the refcnt is never decremented, then int_port is never freed. The kmemleak reports the following error: unreferenced object 0xffff888128204b80 (size 64): comm "handler20", pid 50121, jiffies 4296973009 (age 642.932s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 19 00 00 00 03 f0 00 00 04 00 00 00 ................ 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff .wgA.....wgA.... backtrace: [<00000000e992680d>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0x120 [<000000009e945a98>] mlx5e_tc_int_port_get+0x3f3/0xe20 [mlx5_core] [<0000000035a537f0>] mlx5e_tc_add_fdb_flow+0x473/0xcf0 [mlx5_core] [<0000000070c2cec6>] __mlx5e_add_fdb_flow+0x7cf/0xe90 [mlx5_core] [<000000005cc84048>] mlx5e_configure_flower+0xd40/0x4c40 [mlx5_core] [<000000004f8a2031>] mlx5e_rep_indr_offload.isra.0+0x10e/0x1c0 [mlx5_core] [<000000007df797dc>] mlx5e_rep_indr_setup_tc_cb+0x90/0x130 [mlx5_core] [<0000000016c15cc3>] tc_setup_cb_add+0x1cf/0x410 [<00000000a63305b4>] fl_hw_replace_filter+0x38f/0x670 [cls_flower] [<000000008bc9e77c>] fl_change+0x1fd5/0x4430 [cls_flower] [<00000000e7f766e4>] tc_new_tfilter+0x867/0x2010 [<00000000e101c0ef>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fc/0x9f0 [<00000000e1111d44>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x12c/0x360 [<0000000082dd6c8b>] netlink_unicast+0x438/0x710 [<00000000fc568f70>] netlink_sendmsg+0x794/0xc50 [<0000000016e92590>] sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x190 So fix this by moving int_port cleanup code to the flow attribute free helper, which is used by all the attribute free cases.

CVSS metrics

Risk metrics not yet published.

EPSS trend

Probability

0.20%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

10%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

Increase +0.01 pp

From 0.19% on 22-09-2026

22-09-202622-10-2026

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

No weakness data has been published for this record.

Affected systems

Ubuntu85 products
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.13All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
Debian1 product
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 6.1.190-1 | < 6.4.11-1
Linux1 product
  • linux≥ 8300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213, < 9079ef5fb26ff38ced50cc15199ce56a009b8605 | ≥ 8300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213, < bc1918bac0f30e3f551ef5649b53062917db55fa | ≥ 8300f225268be9ee2c0daf5a3f23929fcdcbf213, < ac5da544a3c2047cbfd715acd9cec8380d7fe5c6 | 5.18

3 vendors · 87 products

References

6 links