CVE-2023-54206
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: flower: fix filter idr initialization
The cited commit moved idr initialization too early in fl_change() which allows concurrent users to access the filter that is still being initialized and is in inconsistent state, which, in turn, can cause NULL pointer dereference [0]. Since there is no obvious way to fix the ordering without reverting the whole cited commit, alternative approach taken to first insert NULL pointer into idr in order to allocate the handle but still cause fl_get() to return NULL and prevent concurrent users from seeing the filter while providing miss-to-action infrastructure with valid handle id early in fl_change().
[ 152.434728] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN [ 152.436163] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] [ 152.437269] CPU: 4 PID: 3877 Comm: tc Not tainted 6.3.0-rc4+ #5 [ 152.438110] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 152.439644] RIP: 0010:fl_dump_key+0x8b/0x1d10 [cls_flower] [ 152.440461] Code: 01 f2 02 f2 c7 40 08 04 f2 04 f2 c7 40 0c 04 f3 f3 f3 65 48 8b 04 25 28 00 00 00 48 89 84 24 00 01 00 00 48 89 c8 48 c1 e8 03 <0f> b6 04 10 84 c0 74 08 3c 03 0f 8e 98 19 00 00 8b 13 85 d2 74 57 [ 152.442885] RSP: 0018:ffff88817a28f158 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 152.443851] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 152.444826] RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: ffffffff8500ae80 RDI: ffff88810a987900 [ 152.445791] RBP: ffff888179d88240 R08: ffff888179d8845c R09: ffff888179d88240 [ 152.446780] R10: ffffed102f451e48 R11: 00000000fffffff2 R12: ffff88810a987900 [ 152.447741] R13: ffffffff8500ae80 R14: ffff88810a987900 R15: ffff888149b3c738 [ 152.448756] FS: 00007f5eb2a34800(0000) GS:ffff88881ec00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 152.449888] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 152.450685] CR2: 000000000046ad19 CR3: 000000010b0bd006 CR4: 0000000000370ea0 [ 152.451641] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 152.452628] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 152.453588] Call Trace: [ 152.454032] [ 152.454447] ? netlink_sendmsg+0x7a1/0xcb0 [ 152.455109] ? sock_sendmsg+0xc5/0x190 [ 152.455689] ? ____sys_sendmsg+0x535/0x6b0 [ 152.456320] ? ___sys_sendmsg+0xeb/0x170 [ 152.456916] ? do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x90 [ 152.457529] ? entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 [ 152.458321] ? ___sys_sendmsg+0xeb/0x170 [ 152.458958] ? __sys_sendmsg+0xb5/0x140 [ 152.459564] ? do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x90 [ 152.460122] ? entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 [ 152.460852] ? fl_dump_key_options.part.0+0xea0/0xea0 [cls_flower] [ 152.461710] ? _raw_spin_lock+0x7a/0xd0 [ 152.462299] ? _raw_read_lock_irq+0x30/0x30 [ 152.462924] ? nla_put+0x15e/0x1c0 [ 152.463480] fl_dump+0x228/0x650 [cls_flower] [ 152.464112] ? fl_tmplt_dump+0x210/0x210 [cls_flower] [ 152.464854] ? __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x1a7/0x330 [ 152.465592] ? nla_put+0x15e/0x1c0 [ 152.466160] tcf_fill_node+0x515/0x9a0 [ 152.466766] ? tc_setup_offload_action+0xf0/0xf0 [ 152.467463] ? __alloc_skb+0x13c/0x2a0 [ 152.468067] ? __build_skb_around+0x330/0x330 [ 152.468814] ? fl_get+0x107/0x1a0 [cls_flower] [ 152.469503] tc_del_tfilter+0x718/0x1330 [ 152.470115] ? is_bpf_text_address+0xa/0x20 [ 152.470765] ? tc_ctl_chain+0xee0/0xee0 [ 152.471335] ? __kernel_text_address+0xe/0x30 [ 152.471948] ? unwind_get_return_address+0x56/0xa0 [ 152.472639] ? __thaw_task+0x150/0x150 [ 152.473218] ? arch_stack_walk+0x98/0xf0 [ 152.473839] ? __stack_depot_save+0x35/0x4c0 [ 152.474501] ? stack_trace_save+0x91/0xc0 [ 152.475119] ? security_capable+0x51/0x90 [ 152.475741] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x2c1/0x9d0 [ 152.476387] ? rtnl_calcit.isra.0+0x2b0/0x2b0 [ 152.477042] ---truncated---
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
CVE-2023-54206: Linux kernel net/sched flower filter idr initialization race allows NULL pointer dereference.
Vulnerability
Description
The vulnerability is a race condition in the Linux kernel's net/sched flower classifier. The fl_change() function moved the filter IDR initialization too early, allowing concurrent users to access a filter that is still being initialized and is in an inconsistent state. This can lead to a NULL pointer dereference, as demonstrated in the reported crash with a general protection fault at fl_dump_key [1].
Exploitation
Prerequisites
An attacker would need the ability to create or modify network filter rules via the tc command, which typically requires root privileges or CAP_NET_ADMIN. The race window occurs during filter creation, so the attacker must be able to trigger concurrent access to the filter set while it is being created.
Impact
If exploited, this can cause a kernel crash (NULL pointer dereference), leading to a denial of service (DoS). The crash trace shows a general protection fault in cls_flower while dumping filter keys, indicating that a concurrent operation accessed an uninitialized filter structure [1].
Mitigation
This vulnerability is fixed in the Linux kernel by adopting an alternative approach: initially inserting a NULL pointer into the IDR to allocate a handle while still causing fl_get() to return NULL, preventing concurrent users from seeing the partially initialized filter. The fix was backported to stable kernels [1]. Users should apply the latest kernel updates from their distribution.
AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.
Affected products
1Patches
2253a3a324e0edd4f6bbfa646Vulnerability mechanics
Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.
References
2News mentions
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