CVE-2023-52767
kernel: tls: fix NULL deref on tls_sw_splice_eof() with empty record
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · May 21, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tls: fix NULL deref on tls_sw_splice_eof() with empty record
syzkaller discovered that if tls_sw_splice_eof() is executed as part of
sendfile() when the plaintext/ciphertext sk_msg are empty, the send path
gets confused because the empty ciphertext buffer does not have enough
space for the encryption overhead. This causes tls_push_record() to go on
the split = true path (which is only supposed to be used when interacting
with an attached BPF program), and then get further confused and hit the
tls_merge_open_record() path, which then assumes that there must be at
least one populated buffer element, leading to a NULL deref.
It is possible to have empty plaintext/ciphertext buffers if we previously bailed from tls_sw_sendmsg_locked() via the tls_trim_both_msgs() path. tls_sw_push_pending_record() already handles this case correctly; let's do the same check in tls_sw_splice_eof().
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference