CVE-2023-52658 is a moderate-severity local denial-of-service flaw in the Linux kernel's Mellanox mlx5 switchdev offload driver. A change intended to block switchdev mode when network namespace state is inconsistent can instead trigger a system crash. The vulnerable change was introduced in Linux 6.3 and backported to Linux 6.1.22 and 6.2.9; fixes revert the change and are included in Linux 6.6.22, 6.7.10, and 6.8.
Red Hat rates the issue CVSS 5.5: exploitation requires low privileges and affects availability, with no identified confidentiality or integrity impact. Red Hat shipped fixes in RHEL 8 kernel and kernel-rt updates and the RHEL 9 kernel update, while RHEL 9 kernel-rt remained listed as affected; organizations using MLX5 adapters in switchdev mode should deploy current vendor kernel updates rather than individually cherry-picking patches.

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Red Hat released RHSA-2024:5101 for the RHEL 8 kernel and RHSA-2024:5102 for the RHEL 8 kernel-rt, fixing CVE-2023-52658 by incorporating the reversion.
Red Hat released RHSA-2024:8162 for the RHEL 9 kernel to address CVE-2023-52658. RHEL 9 kernel-rt remained listed as affected without an identified erratum.
The issue tracked as CVE-2023-52658 was resolved by reverting the crash-causing change. Fixes were included in Linux 6.6.22, 6.7.10, and 6.8.
A change in Linux 6.3, later backported to Linux 6.1.22 and 6.2.9, could cause system crashes in the Mellanox mlx5 switchdev offload implementation, creating a local denial-of-service condition.
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