CVE-2026-23440 PUBLISHED

net/mlx5e: Fix race condition during IPSec ESN update

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.01.2026 Published: 03.04.2026 Updated: 03.04.2026

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

net/mlx5e: Fix race condition during IPSec ESN update

In IPSec full offload mode, the device reports an ESN (Extended Sequence Number) wrap event to the driver. The driver validates this event by querying the IPSec ASO and checking that the esn_event_arm field is 0x0, which indicates an event has occurred. After handling the event, the driver must re-arm the context by setting esn_event_arm back to 0x1.

A race condition exists in this handling path. After validating the event, the driver calls mlx5_accel_esp_modify_xfrm() to update the kernel's xfrm state. This function temporarily releases and re-acquires the xfrm state lock.

So, need to acknowledge the event first by setting esn_event_arm to 0x1. This prevents the driver from reprocessing the same ESN update if the hardware sends events for other reason. Since the next ESN update only occurs after nearly 2^31 packets are received, there's no risk of missing an update, as it will happen long after this handling has finished.

Processing the event twice causes the ESN high-order bits (esn_msb) to be incremented incorrectly. The driver then programs the hardware with this invalid ESN state, which leads to anti-replay failures and a complete halt of IPSec traffic.

Fix this by re-arming the ESN event immediately after it is validated, before calling mlx5_accel_esp_modify_xfrm(). This ensures that any spurious, duplicate events are correctly ignored, closing the race window.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from fef06678931ff67b158d337b581e5cf5ca40a3a3 to 3dffc083292e6872787bd7e34b957627622f9af4 (excl.)
  • affected from fef06678931ff67b158d337b581e5cf5ca40a3a3 to 2051c709dce92da3550040aa7949cd5a9c89b14e (excl.)
  • affected from fef06678931ff67b158d337b581e5cf5ca40a3a3 to 96c9c25b74686ac2de15921c9ad30c5ef13af8cd (excl.)
  • affected from fef06678931ff67b158d337b581e5cf5ca40a3a3 to 8d625c15471fb8780125eaef682983a96af77bdc (excl.)
  • affected from fef06678931ff67b158d337b581e5cf5ca40a3a3 to beb6e2e5976a128b0cccf10d158124422210c5ef (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.4 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.4 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.130 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.78 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.20 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.10 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0-rc5 to * (incl.)

References