---
id: CVE-2023-54238
title: 'mlx5: fix skb leak while fifo resync and push'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  mlx5: fix skb leak while fifo resync and push

  During ptp resync operation SKBs were poped from the fifo but were never
  freed neither by napi_consume nor by dev_kfree_s…
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cvssSource: cna
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a <
    234cffda95e1049f58e8ec136ef105c633f0ed19
  - >-
    Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a <
    68504c66d08c70fb92799722e25a932d311d74fd
  - >-
    Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a <
    e435941b1da1a0be4ff8a7ae425774c76a5ac514
  - Linux 6.0
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-10-15T21:39:43.149613Z'
published: '2025-12-30'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T21:41:42.874Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54238'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/234cffda95e1049f58e8ec136ef105c633f0ed19'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/68504c66d08c70fb92799722e25a932d311d74fd'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e435941b1da1a0be4ff8a7ae425774c76a5ac514'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00152
epssPercentile: 0.03943
ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T22:48:25.437Z'
---

## Overview

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

mlx5: fix skb leak while fifo resync and push

During ptp resync operation SKBs were poped from the fifo but were never
freed neither by napi_consume nor by dev_kfree_skb_any. Add call to
napi_consume_skb to properly free SKBs.

Another leak was happening because mlx5e_skb_fifo_has_room() had an error
in the check. Comparing free running counters works well unless C promotes
the types to something wider than the counter. In this case counters are
u16 but the result of the substraction is promouted to int and it causes
wrong result (negative value) of the check when producer have already
overlapped but consumer haven't yet. Explicit cast to u16 fixes the issue.

## Affected

- `Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a < 234cffda95e1049f58e8ec136ef105c633f0ed19`
- `Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a < 68504c66d08c70fb92799722e25a932d311d74fd`
- `Linux >= 58a518948f60153e8f6cb8361d2712aa3a1af94a < e435941b1da1a0be4ff8a7ae425774c76a5ac514`
- `Linux 6.0`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.