CVE-2023-53798

NONECVSS 0.0
0.0
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • No confirmed exploitation signals yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: —Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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

ethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes

It is not possible to set the number of lanes when setting link modes using the legacy IOCTL ethtool interface. Since 'struct ethtool_link_ksettings' is not initialized in this path, drivers receive an uninitialized number of lanes in 'struct ethtool_link_ksettings::lanes'.

When this information is later queried from drivers, it results in the ethtool code making decisions based on uninitialized memory, leading to the following KMSAN splat [1]. In practice, this most likely only happens with the tun driver that simply returns whatever it got in the set operation.

As far as I can tell, this uninitialized memory is not leaked to user space thanks to the 'ethtool_ops->cap_link_lanes_supported' check in linkmodes_prepare_data().

Fix by initializing the structure in the IOCTL path. Did not find any more call sites that pass an uninitialized structure when calling 'ethtool_ops::set_link_ksettings()'.

[1] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333 ethnl_update_linkmodes net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:273 [inline] ethnl_set_linkmodes+0x190b/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:333 ethnl_default_set_doit+0x88d/0xde0 net/ethtool/netlink.c:640 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 [inline] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1048 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065 netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline] netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365 netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Uninit was stored to memory at: tun_get_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3544 __ethtool_get_link_ksettings+0x17b/0x260 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:441 ethnl_set_linkmodes+0xee/0x19d0 net/ethtool/linkmodes.c:327 ethnl_default_set_doit+0x88d/0xde0 net/ethtool/netlink.c:640 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 [inline] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1048 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x141a/0x14c0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065 netlink_rcv_skb+0x3f8/0x750 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2577 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339 [inline] netlink_unicast+0xf41/0x1270 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1365 netlink_sendmsg+0x127d/0x1430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1942 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:747 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0xa24/0xe40 net/socket.c:2501 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a1/0x3f0 net/socket.c:2555 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2584 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2593 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2591 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x540 net/socket.c:2591 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Uninit was stored to memory at: tun_set_link_ksettings+0x37/0x60 drivers/net/tun.c:3553 ethtool_set_link_ksettings+0x600/0x690 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:609 __dev_ethtool net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3024 [inline] dev_ethtool+0x1db9/0x2a70 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3078 dev_ioctl+0xb07/0x1270 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:524 sock_do_ioctl+0x295/0x540 net/socket.c:1213 sock_i ---truncated---

CVSS v3
—
EG Score
0.0(none)
EG Risk
0
EG Risk 0/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. It is distinct from the 0–10 EG Score, which measures severity.

EPSS
7.2%
KEV
Not listed

Published

December 9, 2025

Last Modified

April 15, 2026

References (5)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-53798(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatkernel-0:4.18.0-553.el8_102024-05-22redhat
linuxKernel @ 5.15.112—osv

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 13× in last 7d / 47× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 118 total refreshes for this CVE.

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Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2023-53798?
CVE-2023-53798 is a none vulnerability published on December 9, 2025. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethtool: Fix uninitialized number of lanes It is not possible to set the number of lanes when setting link modes using the legacy IOCTL ethtool interface. Since 'struct ethtoollinkksettings' is not initialized in this path, drivers…
When was CVE-2023-53798 disclosed?
CVE-2023-53798 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 9, 2025, with the most recent update on April 15, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-53798 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-53798 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 7.2% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
How do I remediate CVE-2023-53798?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-53798, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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