CVE-2023-53999
UNSCOREDDescription
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, Fix internal port memory leak The flow rule can be splited, and the extra post_act rules are added to post_act table. It's possible to trigger memleak when the rule forwards packets from internal port and over tunnel, in the case that, for example, CT 'new' state offload is allowed. As int_port object is assigned to the flow attribute of post_act rule, and its refcnt is incremented by mlx5e_tc_int_port_get(), but mlx5e_tc_int_port_put() is not called, the refcnt is never decremented, then int_port is never freed. The kmemleak reports the following error: unreferenced object 0xffff888128204b80 (size 64): comm "handler20", pid 50121, jiffies 4296973009 (age 642.932s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 19 00 00 00 03 f0 00 00 04 00 00 00 ................ 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff 98 77 67 41 81 88 ff ff .wgA.....wgA.... backtrace: [<00000000e992680d>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0x120 [<000000009e945a98>] mlx5e_tc_int_port_get+0x3f3/0xe20 [mlx5_core] [<0000000035a537f0>] mlx5e_tc_add_fdb_flow+0x473/0xcf0 [mlx5_core] [<0000000070c2cec6>] __mlx5e_add_fdb_flow+0x7cf/0xe90 [mlx5_core] [<000000005cc84048>] mlx5e_configure_flower+0xd40/0x4c40 [mlx5_core] [<000000004f8a2031>] mlx5e_rep_indr_offload.isra.0+0x10e/0x1c0 [mlx5_core] [<000000007df797dc>] mlx5e_rep_indr_setup_tc_cb+0x90/0x130 [mlx5_core] [<0000000016c15cc3>] tc_setup_cb_add+0x1cf/0x410 [<00000000a63305b4>] fl_hw_replace_filter+0x38f/0x670 [cls_flower] [<000000008bc9e77c>] fl_change+0x1fd5/0x4430 [cls_flower] [<00000000e7f766e4>] tc_new_tfilter+0x867/0x2010 [<00000000e101c0ef>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fc/0x9f0 [<00000000e1111d44>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x12c/0x360 [<0000000082dd6c8b>] netlink_unicast+0x438/0x710 [<00000000fc568f70>] netlink_sendmsg+0x794/0xc50 [<0000000016e92590>] sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x190 So fix this by moving int_port cleanup code to the flow attribute free helper, which is used by all the attribute free cases.
How to fix
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3.1 Vector
No CVSS vector data available.
Exploit Intelligence
Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 5% of all known CVEs.
References
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Start freeThis product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-12-29.