CVE-2023-1838 — A use-after-free flaw was found in vhost_net_set_backend in drivers/vhost/net

A use-after-free flaw was found in vhost_net_set_backend in drivers/vhost/net.c in virtio network subcomponent in the Linux kernel due to a double fget. This flaw could allow a local attacker to crash the system, and could even lead to a kernel information leak problem.

01What is this vulnerability?

A use-after-free flaw was found in vhost_net_set_backend in drivers/vhost/net.c in virtio network subcomponent in the Linux kernel due to a double fget. This flaw could allow a local attacker to crash the system, and could even lead to a kernel information leak problem.

02Affected products

No structured affected-product list available — see references below for vendor advisories.

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-04-05T19:15:07.793
• Last modified: 2026-10-08T22:17:22.263

09References

• lore.kernel.org — https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20220516084213.26854-1-jasowang%40redhat.com/T/
• security.netapp.com — https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230517-0003/
• lore.kernel.org — https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20220516084213.26854-1-jasowang%40redhat.com/T/
• security.netapp.com — https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230517-0003/