CVE-2023-53659: 
Linux Kernel vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Intel iavf driver (CVE-2023-53659) was discovered and reported on October 7, 2025. The issue occurs when setting channels during device removal (iavf_remove) operations, potentially leading to an out-of-bounds condition (NVD, Red Hat).

The vulnerability manifests when channels are set to a greater value during iavfremove() execution. If the reset timeout occurs, it returns with an error but directly modifies numactivequeues, resulting in an out-of-bounds condition because numactivequeues becomes larger than the actually allocated tx/rxrings array. The issue is detected by KASAN (Kernel Address Sanitizer) as a slab-out-of-bounds read of size 8 during iavffreealltxresources execution (Red Hat).

The vulnerability can lead to kernel crashes and potential system instability when exploited. The issue specifically affects systems using the Intel iavf network driver with SR-IOV functionality enabled (Red Hat).

Red Hat has marked this vulnerability for fix deferral in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.4, indicating moderate severity (Red Hat).