CVE-2023-53517

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

State
Published
Severity
9.8 Critical
Published
Oct 1, 2025
Updated
Oct 15, 2026
Reserved
Oct 1, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.19.8 CriticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • ed193ece2649c194a87a9d8470195760d367c075 to before 2bd4ff4ffb92113f8acd04dbaed83269172c24b4Affected
  • ed193ece2649c194a87a9d8470195760d367c075 to before 575e84d90a74c0b091b3417ba763ebb237aa0a8cAffected
  • ed193ece2649c194a87a9d8470195760d367c075 to before 259683001d7e879fea4b42084fb6560dd9408a7eAffected
  • ed193ece2649c194a87a9d8470195760d367c075 to before 1dd7ae5e0cf5a56e513f7ab7ab9570b7496281d2Affected
  • ed193ece2649c194a87a9d8470195760d367c075 to before 56077b56cd3fb78e1c8619e29581ba25a5c55e86Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 4.1Affected
  • before 4.1Not affected
  • 5.10.181 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.113 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.30 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.3.4 through 6.3.*Not affected
  • 6.4 and laterNot affected

References

Every record here comes from the CVE Program’s CVE List. © 1999–2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. The records are reproduced under the CVE Program terms of use.