CVE-2023-53752

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. A local attacker can exploit an integer overflow vulnerability in the kmalloc_reserve() function by manipulating network interface settings. This can cause the kernel to attempt a memory allocation with an incorrect size, leading to memory corruption and ultimately a system crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

A MODERATE impact flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. kmalloc_reserve() stores the allocation size in a 32-bit variable (obj_size): when the requested size is larger than 0x80000000, kmalloc_size_roundup() returns 2^32, which is truncated to 0, and kmalloc(0) returns ZERO_SIZE_PTR, a value that the skb allocation path does not handle. A local attacker with the privileges needed to configure network interface settings, such as setting a netdev MTU close to 0x7fffffff, could exploit this integer overflow to trigger memory corruption and a kernel crash, resulting in a denial of service. Red Hat scored this flaw 7.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H), lower than the CVE.org score of 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H); the difference is a lower integrity impact rating, reflecting that the established consequence is a system crash rather than controlled data modification. No Red Hat products are affected: the change that introduced this vulnerability into the RHEL 9 kernel was shipped together with its fix in the same kernel update, so the vulnerable code is not present in any released version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 (kernel and kernel-rt) or Red Hat In-Vehicle OS, and all corresponding affect records are marked Not Affected with the justification that the vulnerable code is not present.

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.