CVE-2023-53517

CVE-2023-53517

Critical · published October 1, 2025

CVSS v3.1
9.8
EPSS
0%
Percentile
22.1
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tipc: do not update mtu if msg_max is too small in mtu negotiation

When doing link mtu negotiation, a malicious peer may send Activate msg

with a very small mtu, e.g. 4 in Shuang's testing, without checking for

the minimum mtu, l->mtu will be set to 4 in tipc_link_proto_rcv(), then

n->links[bearer_id].mtu is set to 4294967228, which is a overflow of

'4 - INT_H_SIZE - EMSG_OVERHEAD' in tipc_link_mss().

With tipc_link.mtu = 4, tipc_link_xmit() kept printing the warning:

tipc: Too large msg, purging xmit list 1 5 0 40 4!

tipc: Too large msg, purging xmit list 1 15 0 60 4!

And with tipc_link_entry.mtu 4294967228, a huge skb was allocated in

named_distribute(), and when purging it in tipc_link_xmit(), a crash

was even caused:

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0x2100001011000dd: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI

CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.3.0.neta #19

RIP: 0010:kfree_skb_list_reason+0x7e/0x1f0

Call Trace:

<IRQ>

skb_release_data+0xf9/0x1d0

kfree_skb_reason+0x40/0x100

tipc_link_xmit+0x57a/0x740 [tipc]

tipc_node_xmit+0x16c/0x5c0 [tipc]

tipc_named_node_up+0x27f/0x2c0 [tipc]

tipc_node_write_unlock+0x149/0x170 [tipc]

tipc_rcv+0x608/0x740 [tipc]

tipc_udp_recv+0xdc/0x1f0 [tipc]

udp_queue_rcv_one_skb+0x33e/0x620

udp_unicast_rcv_skb.isra.72+0x75/0x90

__udp4_lib_rcv+0x56d/0xc20

ip_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x100/0x2d0

This patch fixes it by checking the new mtu against tipc_bearer_min_mtu(),

and not updating mtu if it is too small.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
9.8 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00305 · 22.1th percentile
Published
2025-10-01T16:15Z
Affected products (6)
ProductVersionsFixed in
linux/linux_kernel≥ 4.1, < 5.10.1815.10.181
linux/linux_kernel≥ 5.11, < 5.15.1135.15.113
linux/linux_kernel≥ 5.16, < 6.1.306.1.30
linux/linux_kernel≥ 6.2, < 6.3.46.3.4
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
References (5)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 01 OCT 11:46Z
    tipc: do not update mtu if msg_max is too small in mtu negotiation
    cvelistv5