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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-53134

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4.237 / 5.10.175 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: bnxt_en: Avoid order-5 memory allocation for TPA data The driver needs to keep track of all the possible concurrent TPA (GRO/LRO) completions on the aggregation ring. On P5 chips, the maximum number of concurrent TPA is 256 and the amount of memory we allocate is order-5 on systems using 4K pages. Memory allocation failure has been reported: NetworkManager: page allocation failure: order:5, mode:0x40dc0(GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_COMP|__GFP_ZERO), nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0-1 CPU: 15 PID: 2995 Comm: NetworkManager Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.10.156 #1 Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R660/0M1CC5, BIOS 0.2.25 08/12/2022 Call Trace: dump_stack+0x57/0x6e warn_alloc.cold.120+0x7b/0xdd ? _cond_resched+0x15/0x30 ? __alloc_pages_direct_compact+0x15f/0x170 __alloc_pages_slowpath.constprop.108+0xc58/0xc70 __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x2d0/0x300 kmalloc_order+0x24/0xe0 kmalloc_order_trace+0x19/0x80 bnxt_alloc_mem+0x1150/0x15c0 [bnxt_en] ? bnxt_get_func_stat_ctxs+0x13/0x60 [bnxt_en] __bnxt_open_nic+0x12e/0x780 [bnxt_en] bnxt_open+0x10b/0x240 [bnxt_en] __dev_open+0xe9/0x180 __dev_change_flags+0x1af/0x220 dev_change_flags+0x21/0x60 do_setlink+0x35c/0x1100 Instead of allocating this big chunk of memory and dividing it up for the concurrent TPA instances, allocate each small chunk separately for each TPA instance. This will reduce it to order-0 allocations.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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:>= 5.4, < 5.4.237>= 5.5, < 5.10.175>= 5.11, < 5.15.103>= 5.16, < 6.1.20>= 6.2, < 6.2.7= 6.3

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 5.4.237 / 5.10.175 / 5.15.103 or later
Fixed in 5.4.2375.10.1755.15.103
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux kernel >= 5.4.237 OR >= 5.10.175 OR >= 5.15.103 OR >= 6.1.20 (depending on your current branch)

  1. Identify the current Linux kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
  2. Determine which version branch your kernel comes from (e.g., 5.10.x, 5.15.x, 6.1.x)
  3. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed release: for 5.4.x upgrade to 5.4.237 or later; for 5.10.x upgrade to 5.10.175 or later; for 5.15.x upgrade to 5.15.103 or later; for 6.1.x upgrade to 6.1.20 or later
  4. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and confirming the bnxt_en driver loads without allocation errors

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 $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-53134 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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