CVE-2023-53987 (GCVE-0-2023-53987)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-12-24 10:55 – Updated: 2026-05-23 15:31
VLAI
Title
ping: Fix potentail NULL deref for /proc/net/icmp.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ping: Fix potentail NULL deref for /proc/net/icmp. After commit dbca1596bbb0 ("ping: convert to RCU lookups, get rid of rwlock"), we use RCU for ping sockets, but we should use spinlock for /proc/net/icmp to avoid a potential NULL deref mentioned in the previous patch. Let's go back to using spinlock there. Note we can convert ping sockets to use hlist instead of hlist_nulls because we do not use SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU for ping sockets.
Severity
No CVSS data available.
Assigner
Linux CNA under the mitre root
CNA scorecard D 53/100 over 7061 records in the last 180 days details
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
Linux Linux Affected: dbca1596bbb08318f5e3b3b99f8ca0a0d3830a65 , < 5a08a32e624908890aa0a2eb442bb6a7669891a8 (git)
Affected: dbca1596bbb08318f5e3b3b99f8ca0a0d3830a65 , < 176cbb6da28f36506cc60a4bec4ab8df0c16713a (git)
Affected: dbca1596bbb08318f5e3b3b99f8ca0a0d3830a65 , < ab5fb73ffa01072b4d8031cc05801fa1cb653bee (git)
Affected: de3d723a3985f282a8c9e468d1e198616eb291c8 (git)
Affected: 5.19.2 , < 5.20 (semver)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
Linux Linux Affected: 6.0
Unaffected: 0 , < 6.0 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.1.24 , ≤ 6.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.2.11 , ≤ 6.2.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.3 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
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{
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          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nping: Fix potentail NULL deref for /proc/net/icmp.\n\nAfter commit dbca1596bbb0 (\"ping: convert to RCU lookups, get rid\nof rwlock\"), we use RCU for ping sockets, but we should use spinlock\nfor /proc/net/icmp to avoid a potential NULL deref mentioned in\nthe previous patch.\n\nLet\u0027s go back to using spinlock there.\n\nNote we can convert ping sockets to use hlist instead of hlist_nulls\nbecause we do not use SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU for ping sockets."
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab5fb73ffa01072b4d8031cc05801fa1cb653bee"
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    "datePublished": "2025-12-24T10:55:27.032Z",
    "dateReserved": "2025-12-24T10:53:46.175Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-05-23T15:31:43.935Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
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            "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nping: Fix potentail NULL deref for /proc/net/icmp.\n\nAfter commit dbca1596bbb0 (\"ping: convert to RCU lookups, get rid\nof rwlock\"), we use RCU for ping sockets, but we should use spinlock\nfor /proc/net/icmp to avoid a potential NULL deref mentioned in\nthe previous patch.\n\nLet\u0027s go back to using spinlock there.\n\nNote we can convert ping sockets to use hlist instead of hlist_nulls\nbecause we do not use SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU for ping sockets."
          }
        ],
        "id": "CVE-2023-53987",
        "lastModified": "2026-06-17T06:46:29.500",
        "metrics": {},
        "published": "2025-12-24T11:15:51.597",
        "references": [
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      "product_status:known_affected": "170",
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      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
      "status": "final",
      "title": "kernel: Linux kernel: Denial of Service via NULL dereference in ping socket handling",
      "url": "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2023/cve-2023-53987.json",
      "version": "3"
    }
  }
}



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