CVE-2023-53790

bpf: Zeroing allocated object from slab in bpf memory allocator

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: December 9, 2025 at 12:00 AM UTC
Updated: October 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

Using Linux by Linux?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect Linux - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Zeroing allocated object from slab in bpf memory allocator Currently the freed element in bpf memory allocator may be immediately reused, for htab map the reuse will reinitialize special fields in map value (e.g., bpf_spin_lock), but lookup procedure may still access these special fields, and it may lead to hard-lockup as shown below: NMI backtrace for cpu 16 CPU: 16 PID: 2574 Comm: htab.bin Tainted: G L 6.1.0+ #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), RIP: 0010:queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x283/0x2c0 ...... Call Trace: <TASK> copy_map_value_locked+0xb7/0x170 bpf_map_copy_value+0x113/0x3c0 __sys_bpf+0x1c67/0x2780 __x64_sys_bpf+0x1c/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x30/0x60 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 ...... </TASK> For htab map, just like the preallocated case, these is no need to initialize these special fields in map value again once these fields have been initialized. For preallocated htab map, these fields are initialized through __GFP_ZERO in bpf_map_area_alloc(), so do the similar thing for non-preallocated htab in bpf memory allocator. And there is no need to use __GFP_ZERO for per-cpu bpf memory allocator, because __alloc_percpu_gfp() does it implicitly.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

0fd7c5d43339b783ee3301a05f925d1e52ac87c96.1
Vendor states this is fixed in 5d447e04290e78bdc1a3a6c321320d384e09c2f1 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 678ea18d6240299fd77d7000c8b1d7e5f274c8af (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 997849c4b969034e225153f41026657def66d286 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.16 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.2.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card