CVE-2023-53382

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Shared Memory Communications (SMC) protocol subsystem. When negotiating a connection using Shared Memory Communications over Remote Direct Memory Access (SMC-R), a buffer initialization failure causes the server to fall back to an earlier protocol version without resetting previously allocated connection resources. Subsequent operations access uninitialized memory structures, resulting in a kernel crash. A network peer can trigger this condition during handshake negotiation to cause a Denial of Service (DoS).

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because exploitation is confined to triggering a system crash (denial of service) under specific hardware and network protocol conditions. The flaw requires active use of Shared Memory Communications over RDMA (SMC-R) and occurs only during connection fallback between protocol versions upon buffer initialization failure, preventing arbitrary code execution. Standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments do not utilize SMC sockets by default and lack the requisite RDMA infrastructure, substantially reducing real-world exposure.

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 for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.