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TI-2023-29933 Aliases CVE-2023-53645GHSA-pw78-hwhh-29v2

bpf: Make bpf_refcount_acquire fallible for non-owning refs

Priority LOW 33CWE-416Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Code execution
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 5 fixed, 1 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-416 and the CVSS impact.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Make bpf_refcount_acquire fallible for non-owning refs This patch fixes an incorrect assumption made in the original bpf_refcount series [0], specifically that the BPF program calling bpf_refcount_acquire on some node can always guarantee that the node is alive. In that series, the patch adding failure behavior to rbtree_add and list_push_{front, back} breaks this assumption for non-owning references. Consider the following program: n = bpf_kptr_xchg(&mapval, NULL); /* skip error checking */ bpf_spin_lock(&l); if(bpf_rbtree_add(&t, &n->rb, less)) { bpf_refcount_acquire(n); /* Failed to add, do something else with the node */ } bpf_spin_unlock(&l); It's incorrect to assume that bpf_refcount_acquire will always succeed in this scenario. bpf_refcount_acquire is being called in a critical section here, but the lock being held is associated with rbtree t, which isn't necessarily the lock associated with the tree that the node is already in. So after bpf_rbtree_add fails to add the node and calls bpf_obj_drop in it, the program has no ownership of the node's lifetime. Therefore the node's refcount can be decr'd to 0 at any time after the failing rbtree_add. If this happens before the refcount_acquire above, the node might be free'd, and regardless refcount_acquire will be incrementing a 0 refcount. Later patches in the series exercise this scenario, resulting in the expected complaint from the kernel (without this patch's changes): refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 207 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0xbc/0x110 Modules linked in: bpf_testmod(O) CPU: 1 PID: 207 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G O 6.3.0-rc7-02231-g723de1a718a2-dirty #371 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.15.0-0-g2dd4b9b3f840-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xbc/0x110 Code: 6f 64 f6 02 01 e8 84 a3 5c ff 0f 0b eb 9d 80 3d 5e 64 f6 02 00 75 94 48 c7 c7 e0 13 d2 82 c6 05 4e 64 f6 02 01 e8 64 a3 5c ff <0f> 0b e9 7a ff ff ff 80 3d 38 64 f6 02 00 0f 85 6d ff ff ff 48 c7 RSP: 0018:ffff88810b9179b0 EFLAGS: 00010082 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000202 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffffffff857c3680 RBP: ffff88810027d3c0 R08: ffffffff8125f2a4 R09: ffff88810b9176e7 R10: ffffed1021722edc R11: 746e756f63666572 R12: ffff88810027d388 R13: ffff88810027d3c0 R14: ffffc900005fe030 R15: ffffc900005fe048 FS: 00007fee0584a700(0000) GS:ffff88811b280000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00005634a96f6c58 CR3: 0000000108ce9002 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> bpf_refcount_acquire_impl+0xb5/0xc0 (rest of output snipped) The patch addresses this by changing bpf_refcount_acquire_impl to use refcount_inc_not_zero instead of refcount_inc and marking bpf_refcount_acquire KF_RET_NULL. For owning references, though, we know the above scenario is not possible and thus that bpf_refcount_acquire will always succeed. Some verifier bookkeeping is added to track "is input owning ref?" for bpf_refcount_acquire calls and return false from is_kfunc_ret_null for bpf_refcount_acquire on owning refs despite it being marked KF_RET_NULL. Existing selftests using bpf_refcount_acquire are modified where necessary to NULL-check its return value. [0]: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/[email protected]/

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00157 4th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.4.4, 6.5Red Hat: 1 advisoryRed Hat: 5 fixed, 1 without a fix

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux6.4 and later6.4.4, 6.5Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 6.4 and later Fixed in 6.4.4, 6.5 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*6.4 to before 6.4.4VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.4 to before 6.4.4 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.4.4, 6.5

Red Hat 1 advisory

  • RHSA-2024:2394 Released 2024-04-30 · Red Hat rating Important
    kernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +11
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool-7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +29
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, libperf-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +11
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 +9

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9)Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9)Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9)Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9)Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9)Fixed RHSA-2024:2394
Not affected: 4 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-53645
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-pw78-hwhh-29v2

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources