Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-52998

medium Nessus Plugin ID 244731

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: fec: Use page_pool_put_full_page when freeing rx buffers The page_pool_release_page was used when freeing rx buffers, and this function just unmaps the page (if mapped) and does not recycle the page. So after hundreds of down/up the eth0, the system will out of memory. For more details, please refer to the following reproduce steps and bug logs.
To solve this issue and refer to the doc of page pool, the page_pool_put_full_page should be used to replace page_pool_release_page. Because this API will try to recycle the page if the page refcnt equal to 1. After testing 20000 times, the issue can not be reproduced anymore (about testing 391 times the issue will occur on i.MX8MN-EVK before). Reproduce steps: Create the test script and run the script. The script content is as follows: LOOPS=20000 i=1 while [ $i -le $LOOPS ] do echo TINFO:ENET $curface up and down test $i times org_macaddr=$(cat /sys/class/net/eth0/address) ifconfig eth0 down ifconfig eth0 hw ether $org_macaddr up i=$(expr $i + 1) done sleep 5 if cat /sys/class/net/eth0/operstate | grep 'up';then echo TEST PASS else echo TEST FAIL fi Bug detail logs: TINFO:ENET up and down test 391 times [ 850.471205] Qualcomm Atheros AR8031/AR8033 30be0000.ethernet-1:00: attached PHY driver (mii_bus:phy_addr=30be0000.ethernet-1:00, irq=POLL) [ 853.535318] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0:
link becomes ready [ 853.541694] fec 30be0000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx [ 870.590531] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 199 inflight 60 sec [ 931.006557] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 199 inflight 120 sec TINFO:ENET up and down test 392 times [ 991.426544] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 192 inflight 181 sec [ 1051.838531] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 170 inflight 241 sec [ 1093.751217] Qualcomm Atheros AR8031/AR8033 30be0000.ethernet-1:00: attached PHY driver (mii_bus:phy_addr=30be0000.ethernet-1:00, irq=POLL) [ 1096.446520] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 60 sec [ 1096.831245] fec 30be0000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx [ 1096.839092] IPv6:
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready [ 1112.254526] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 103 inflight 302 sec [ 1156.862533] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 120 sec [ 1172.674516] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 103 inflight 362 sec [ 1217.278532] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 181 sec TINFO:ENET up and down test 393 times [ 1233.086535] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 103 inflight 422 sec [ 1277.698513] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 241 sec [ 1293.502525] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 86 inflight 483 sec [ 1338.110518] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 302 sec [ 1353.918540] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 32 inflight 543 sec [ 1361.179205] Qualcomm Atheros AR8031/AR8033 30be0000.ethernet-1:00: attached PHY driver (mii_bus:phy_addr=30be0000.ethernet-1:00, irq=POLL) [ 1364.255298] fec 30be0000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx [ 1364.263189] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready [ 1371.998532] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 310 inflight 60 sec [ 1398.530542] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 362 sec [ 1414.334539] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 16 inflight 604 sec [ 1432.414520] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 310 inflight 120 sec [ 1458.942523] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 308 inflight 422 sec [ 1474.750521] page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown 16 inflight 664 sec TINFO:ENET up and down test 394 times [ 1492.8305 ---truncated--- (CVE-2023-52998)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-52998

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 244731

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2023_52998.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/7/2025

Updated: 8/7/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 2.2

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-starfive-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-edge, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-intel-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-nvidia-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.17, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-5.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-edge, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-starfive-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.19, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gkeop-5.4, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-allwinner-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.3, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-6.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-nvidia-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gkeop-5.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-aws-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.10, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-raspi2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-intel-iot-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-5.4, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-starfive-6.2, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-riscv-5.19, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gke-4.15, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-6.1, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-realtime, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gcp-5.13, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.6, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-hwe-5.8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-gkeop, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oracle-5.11, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde-6.2, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-6.5, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-oem-5.14, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-azure-fde-5.19

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/27/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2023-52998