Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-52745

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.10 / 4.15 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: IB/IPoIB: Fix legacy IPoIB due to wrong number of queues The cited commit creates child PKEY interfaces over netlink will multiple tx and rx queues, but some devices doesn't support more than 1 tx and 1 rx queues. This causes to a crash when traffic is sent over the PKEY interface due to the parent having a single queue but the child having multiple queues. This patch fixes the number of queues to 1 for legacy IPoIB at the earliest possible point in time. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000036b PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 4 PID: 209665 Comm: python3 Not tainted 6.1.0_for_upstream_min_debug_2022_12_12_17_02 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kmem_cache_alloc+0xcb/0x450 Code: ce 7e 49 8b 50 08 49 83 78 10 00 4d 8b 28 0f 84 cb 02 00 00 4d 85 ed 0f 84 c2 02 00 00 41 8b 44 24 28 48 8d 4a 01 49 8b 3c 24 <49> 8b 5c 05 00 4c 89 e8 65 48 0f c7 0f 0f 94 c0 84 c0 74 b8 41 8b RSP: 0018:ffff88822acbbab8 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 0000000000000070 RBX: ffff8881c28e3e00 RCX: 00000000064f8dae RDX: 00000000064f8dad RSI: 0000000000000a20 RDI: 0000000000030d00 RBP: 0000000000000a20 R08: ffff8882f5d30d00 R09: ffff888104032f40 R10: ffff88810fade828 R11: 736f6d6570736575 R12: ffff88810081c000 R13: 00000000000002fb R14: ffffffff817fc865 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007f9324ff9700(0000) GS:ffff8882f5d00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 000000000000036b CR3: 00000001125af004 CR4: 0000000000370ea0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> skb_clone+0x55/0xd0 ip6_finish_output2+0x3fe/0x690 ip6_finish_output+0xfa/0x310 ip6_send_skb+0x1e/0x60 udp_v6_send_skb+0x1e5/0x420 udpv6_sendmsg+0xb3c/0xe60 ? ip_mc_finish_output+0x180/0x180 ? __switch_to_asm+0x3a/0x60 ? __switch_to_asm+0x34/0x60 sock_sendmsg+0x33/0x40 __sys_sendto+0x103/0x160 ? _copy_to_user+0x21/0x30 ? kvm_clock_get_cycles+0xd/0x10 ? ktime_get_ts64+0x49/0xe0 __x64_sys_sendto+0x25/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 RIP: 0033:0x7f9374f1ed14 Code: 42 41 f8 ff 44 8b 4c 24 2c 4c 8b 44 24 20 89 c5 44 8b 54 24 28 48 8b 54 24 18 b8 2c 00 00 00 48 8b 74 24 10 8b 7c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 34 89 ef 48 89 44 24 08 e8 68 41 f8 ff 48 8b RSP: 002b:00007f9324ff7bd0 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f9324ff7cc8 RCX: 00007f9374f1ed14 RDX: 00000000000002fb RSI: 00007f93000052f0 RDI: 0000000000000030 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 00007f9324ff7d40 R09: 000000000000001c R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 000000012a05f200 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 00007f9374d57bdc </TASK>

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-476

The code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.

General guidance for the null pointer dereference class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 4.9.337, < 4.10>= 4.14.303, < 4.15>= 4.19.270, < 4.20>= 5.4.229, < 5.4.232>= 5.10.163, < 5.10.168>= 5.11, < 5.15.94>= 6.0.16, < 6.1>= 6.1.2, < 6.1.12

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.10 / 4.15 / 4.20 or later
Fixed in 4.104.154.20
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to the next stable kernel release in your branch: 4.10.x (if on 4.9.x), 4.15.x (if on 4.14.x), 4.20.x (if on 4.19.x), or 5.4.232+ (if on 5.4.x)

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Check if the version matches one of the affected ranges: 4.9.337 through 4.9.x, 4.14.303 through 4.14.x, 4.19.270 through 4.19.x, or 5.4.229 through 5.4.231
  3. For 4.9.x kernels: upgrade to kernel 4.10 or later
  4. For 4.14.x kernels: upgrade to kernel 4.15 or later
  5. For 4.19.x kernels: upgrade to kernel 4.20 or later
  6. For 5.4.x kernels: upgrade to kernel 5.4.232 or later
  7. Reboot into the new kernel after upgrade
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuilding third-party kernel modules; ensure compatibility with the new kernel version before rebooting

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $2,850. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52745 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52745 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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