CVE-2023-53188

MEDIUM
Published Sep 15, 2025 Modified Dec 2, 2025 CWE-362

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix race on port output assume the following setup on a single machine: 1. An openvswitch instance with one bridge and default flows 2. two network namespaces "server" and "client" 3. two ovs interfaces "server" and "client" on the bridge 4. for each ovs interface a veth pair with a matching name and 32 rx and tx queues 5. move the ends of the veth pairs to the respective network namespaces 6. assign ip addresses to each of the veth ends in the namespaces (needs to be the same subnet) 7. start some http server on the server network namespace 8. test if a client in the client namespace can reach the http server when following the actions below the host has a chance of getting a cpu stuck in a infinite loop: 1. send a large amount of parallel requests to the http server (around 3000 curls should work) 2. in parallel delete the network namespace (do not delete interfaces or stop the server, just kill the namespace) there is a low chance that this will cause the below kernel cpu stuck message. If this does not happen just retry. Below there is also the output of bpftrace for the functions mentioned in the output. The series of events happening here is: 1. the network namespace is deleted calling `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` somewhere in the process 2. this sets first `NETREG_UNREGISTERING` on both ends of the veth and then runs `synchronize_net` 3. it then calls `call_netdevice_notifiers` with `NETDEV_UNREGISTER` 4. this is then handled by `dp_device_event` which calls `ovs_netdev_detach_dev` (if a vport is found, which is the case for the veth interface attached to ovs) 5. this removes the rx_handlers of the device but does not prevent packages to be sent to the device 6. `dp_device_event` then queues the vport deletion to work in background as a ovs_lock is needed that we do not hold in the unregistration path 7. `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` continues to call `netdev_unregister_kobject` which sets `real_num_tx_queues` to 0 8. port deletion continues (but details are not relevant for this issue) 9. at some future point the background task deletes the vport If after 7. but before 9. a packet is send to the ovs vport (which is not deleted at this point in time) which forwards it to the `dev_queue_xmit` flow even though the device is unregistering. In `skb_tx_hash` (which is called in the `dev_queue_xmit`) path there is a while loop (if the packet has a rx_queue recorded) that is infinite if `dev->real_num_tx_queues` is zero. To prevent this from happening we update `do_output` to handle devices without carrier the same as if the device is not found (which would be the code path after 9. is done). Additionally we now produce a warning in `skb_tx_hash` if we will hit the infinite loop. bpftrace (first word is function name): __dev_queue_xmit server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 netdev_core_pick_tx server: addr: 0xffff9f0a46d4a000 real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 2, reg_state: 1 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 6, reg_state: 2 ovs_netdev_detach_dev server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 netdev_rx_handler_unregister server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 netdev_rx_handler_unregister ret server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 dp_ ---truncated---

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CVSS v3.1 Score

4.7
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-362 CWE-362

Affected Products

Vendor Product
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-53188? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix race on port output assume the following setup on a single machine: 1. An openvswitch instance with one bridge and default flows 2. two network namespaces "server" and "client" 3. two ovs interfaces "server" and "client" on the bridge 4. for each ovs interface a veth pair with a matching name and 32 rx and tx queues 5. move the ends of the veth pairs to the respective network namespaces 6. assign ip addresses to each of the veth ends in the namespaces (needs to be the same subnet) 7. start some http server on the server network namespace 8. test if a client in the client namespace can reach the http server when following the actions below the host has a chance of getting a cpu stuck in a infinite loop: 1. send a large amount of parallel requests to the http server (around 3000 curls should work) 2. in parallel delete the network namespace (do not delete interfaces or stop the server, just kill the namespace) there is a low chance that this will cause the below kernel cpu stuck message. If this does not happen just retry. Below there is also the output of bpftrace for the functions mentioned in the output. The series of events happening here is: 1. the network namespace is deleted calling `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` somewhere in the process 2. this sets first `NETREG_UNREGISTERING` on both ends of the veth and then runs `synchronize_net` 3. it then calls `call_netdevice_notifiers` with `NETDEV_UNREGISTER` 4. this is then handled by `dp_device_event` which calls `ovs_netdev_detach_dev` (if a vport is found, which is the case for the veth interface attached to ovs) 5. this removes the rx_handlers of the device but does not prevent packages to be sent to the device 6. `dp_device_event` then queues the vport deletion to work in background as a ovs_lock is needed that we do not hold in the unregistration path 7. `unregister_netdevice_many_notify` continues to call `netdev_unregister_kobject` which sets `real_num_tx_queues` to 0 8. port deletion continues (but details are not relevant for this issue) 9. at some future point the background task deletes the vport If after 7. but before 9. a packet is send to the ovs vport (which is not deleted at this point in time) which forwards it to the `dev_queue_xmit` flow even though the device is unregistering. In `skb_tx_hash` (which is called in the `dev_queue_xmit`) path there is a while loop (if the packet has a rx_queue recorded) that is infinite if `dev->real_num_tx_queues` is zero. To prevent this from happening we update `do_output` to handle devices without carrier the same as if the device is not found (which would be the code path after 9. is done). Additionally we now produce a warning in `skb_tx_hash` if we will hit the infinite loop. bpftrace (first word is function name): __dev_queue_xmit server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 netdev_core_pick_tx server: addr: 0xffff9f0a46d4a000 real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 2, pid: 28024, tid: 28024, skb_addr: 0xffff9edb6f207000, reg_state: 1 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 2, reg_state: 1 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 dp_device_event server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, event 6, reg_state: 2 ovs_netdev_detach_dev server: real_num_tx_queues: 1 cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 netdev_rx_handler_unregister server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 synchronize_rcu_expedited: cpu 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024 netdev_rx_handler_unregister ret server: real_num_tx_queues: 1, cpu: 9, pid: 21024, tid: 21024, reg_state: 2 dp_ ---truncated--- It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.7 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2023-53188? +
CVE-2023-53188 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 4.7 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.
What products are affected by CVE-2023-53188? +
CVE-2023-53188 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2023-53188? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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