CVE-2023-53539
Description
An incorrect state restoration flaw was found in the Linux kernel's RDMA rxe (soft-RoCE) driver in the requester packet transmission logic. A local user with access to RDMA devices can trigger this issue when network layer packet drops occur during RDMA send operations, causing the work queue element state to be incompletely saved and restored. This results in data corruption in resent packets, leading to denial of service or potential data integrity issues.
Statement
The vulnerability occurs when rxe_requester attempts to retransmit a packet after receiving -EAGAIN from the IP layer. The code saves work queue element state to enable retransmission, but fails to preserve the DMA structure that tracks scatter-gather list processing. Additionally, the state snapshot happens after packet construction has already modified the DMA fields. When heavy network stress causes packet drops—particularly when a fast sender communicates with a slow receiver across multiple queue pairs—the incomplete restoration causes retransmitted packets to carry corrupted payload data.
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, prevent the rdma_rxe module from being loaded. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for instructions on blacklisting kernel modules.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7 | 5.5 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | High | None | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | High | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | High | High | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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