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

bpf, sockmap: Fix skb refcnt race after locking changes

There is a race where skb's from the sk_psock_backlog can be referenced
after userspace side has already skb_consumed() the sk_buff and its refcnt
dropped to zer0 causing use after free.

The flow is the following:

while ((skb = skb_peek(&psock->ingress_skb))
sk_psock_handle_Skb(psock, skb, ..., ingress)
if (!ingress) ...
sk_psock_skb_ingress
sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue(skb)
msg->skb = skb
sk_psock_queue_msg(psock, msg)
skb_dequeue(&psock->ingress_skb)

The sk_psock_queue_msg() puts the msg on the ingress_msg queue. This is
what the application reads when recvmsg() is called. An application can
read this anytime after the msg is placed on the queue. The recvmsg hook
will also read msg->skb and then after user space reads the msg will call
consume_skb(skb) on it effectively free'ing it.

But, the race is in above where backlog queue still has a reference to
the skb and calls skb_dequeue(). If the skb_dequeue happens after the
user reads and free's the skb we have a use after free.

The !ingress case does not suffer from this problem because it uses
sendmsg_*(sk, msg) which does not pass the sk_buff further down the
stack.

The following splat was observed with 'test_progs -t sockmap_listen':

[ 1022.710250][ T2556] general protection fault, ...
[...]
[ 1022.712830][ T2556] Workqueue: events sk_psock_backlog
[ 1022.713262][ T2556] RIP: 0010:skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80
[ 1022.713653][ T2556] Code: ...
[...]
[ 1022.720699][ T2556] Call Trace:
[ 1022.720984][ T2556] <TASK>
[ 1022.721254][ T2556] ? die_addr+0x32/0x80^M
[ 1022.721589][ T2556] ? exc_general_protection+0x25a/0x4b0
[ 1022.722026][ T2556] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30
[ 1022.722489][ T2556] ? skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80
[ 1022.722854][ T2556] sk_psock_backlog+0x27a/0x300
[ 1022.723243][ T2556] process_one_work+0x2a7/0x5b0
[ 1022.723633][ T2556] worker_thread+0x4f/0x3a0
[ 1022.723998][ T2556] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
[ 1022.724386][ T2556] kthread+0xfd/0x130
[ 1022.724709][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
[ 1022.725066][ T2556] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50
[ 1022.725409][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
[ 1022.725799][ T2556] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30
[ 1022.726201][ T2556] </TASK>

To fix we add an skb_get() before passing the skb to be enqueued in the
engress queue. This bumps the skb->users refcnt so that consume_skb()
and kfree_skb will not immediately free the sk_buff. With this we can
be sure the skb is still around when we do the dequeue. Then we just
need to decrement the refcnt or free the skb in the backlog case which
we do by calling kfree_skb() on the ingress case as well as the sendmsg
case.

Before locking change from fixes tag we had the sock locked so we
couldn't race with user and there was no issue here.
Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Low


Tue, 09 Dec 2025 02:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, sockmap: Fix skb refcnt race after locking changes There is a race where skb's from the sk_psock_backlog can be referenced after userspace side has already skb_consumed() the sk_buff and its refcnt dropped to zer0 causing use after free. The flow is the following: while ((skb = skb_peek(&psock->ingress_skb)) sk_psock_handle_Skb(psock, skb, ..., ingress) if (!ingress) ... sk_psock_skb_ingress sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue(skb) msg->skb = skb sk_psock_queue_msg(psock, msg) skb_dequeue(&psock->ingress_skb) The sk_psock_queue_msg() puts the msg on the ingress_msg queue. This is what the application reads when recvmsg() is called. An application can read this anytime after the msg is placed on the queue. The recvmsg hook will also read msg->skb and then after user space reads the msg will call consume_skb(skb) on it effectively free'ing it. But, the race is in above where backlog queue still has a reference to the skb and calls skb_dequeue(). If the skb_dequeue happens after the user reads and free's the skb we have a use after free. The !ingress case does not suffer from this problem because it uses sendmsg_*(sk, msg) which does not pass the sk_buff further down the stack. The following splat was observed with 'test_progs -t sockmap_listen': [ 1022.710250][ T2556] general protection fault, ... [...] [ 1022.712830][ T2556] Workqueue: events sk_psock_backlog [ 1022.713262][ T2556] RIP: 0010:skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80 [ 1022.713653][ T2556] Code: ... [...] [ 1022.720699][ T2556] Call Trace: [ 1022.720984][ T2556] <TASK> [ 1022.721254][ T2556] ? die_addr+0x32/0x80^M [ 1022.721589][ T2556] ? exc_general_protection+0x25a/0x4b0 [ 1022.722026][ T2556] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30 [ 1022.722489][ T2556] ? skb_dequeue+0x4c/0x80 [ 1022.722854][ T2556] sk_psock_backlog+0x27a/0x300 [ 1022.723243][ T2556] process_one_work+0x2a7/0x5b0 [ 1022.723633][ T2556] worker_thread+0x4f/0x3a0 [ 1022.723998][ T2556] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.724386][ T2556] kthread+0xfd/0x130 [ 1022.724709][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.725066][ T2556] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 [ 1022.725409][ T2556] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1022.725799][ T2556] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 [ 1022.726201][ T2556] </TASK> To fix we add an skb_get() before passing the skb to be enqueued in the engress queue. This bumps the skb->users refcnt so that consume_skb() and kfree_skb will not immediately free the sk_buff. With this we can be sure the skb is still around when we do the dequeue. Then we just need to decrement the refcnt or free the skb in the backlog case which we do by calling kfree_skb() on the ingress case as well as the sendmsg case. Before locking change from fixes tag we had the sock locked so we couldn't race with user and there was no issue here.
Title bpf, sockmap: Fix skb refcnt race after locking changes
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-12-09T01:29:52.004Z

Reserved: 2025-12-09T01:27:17.826Z

Link: CVE-2023-53836

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2025-12-09T16:17:22.887

Modified: 2025-12-09T18:37:13.640

Link: CVE-2023-53836

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Low

Publid Date: 2025-12-09T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2023-53836 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses

No weakness.