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NTAP-20231208-0004 — CVE-2023-5178 Linux Kernel Vulnerability in NetApp Products

Published 2023-12-08 · Updated 2026-03-11 · Status: Interim · Exploitation: Public · Severity: HIGH 8.8 · ONTAP affected: Yes

Official advisory: NTAP-20231208-0004 on security.netapp.com ↗. Affected versions, fixed releases, and workarounds live there — this page is a summary.

Product family: Active IQ Unified Manager · SolidFire / NetApp HCI · ONTAP | ONTAP-relevant | highest CVSS: 8.8

CVEs in this advisory

CVE-2023-5178 — HIGH · CVSS 8.8 · site index

What the CVE records say

CVE-2023-5178 — A use-after-free vulnerability was found in drivers/nvme/target/tcp.c` in `nvmet_tcp_free_crypto` due to a logical bug in the NVMe/TCP subsystem in the Linux kernel. This issue may allow a malicious user to cause a use-after-free and double-free problem, which may permit remote code execution or lead to local privilege escalation.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to disclosure of sensitive information, addition or modification of data, or Denial of Service (DoS).

Affected products

Active IQ Unified Manager for VMware vSphere
NetApp HCI Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) - H300S/H500S/H700S/H410S
NetApp HCI Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) - H410C
NetApp HCI Compute Node (Bootstrap OS)
NetApp SolidFire & HCI Management Node
NetApp SolidFire & HCI Storage Node (Element Software)
ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility

Official fixes

Active IQ Unified Manager for VMware vSphere — vendor fix ↗
NetApp SolidFire & HCI Management Node — vendor fix ↗
ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility — vendor fix ↗

What to do

Check the affected products listed above against the official advisory's affected-versions table — that is where the exact ONTAP 9 release, ONTAP tool, or management product versions are named.
If affected and a fixed release exists, plan the upgrade — see the ONTAP upgrade runbook.
If exploitation is listed as "active", treat remediation as urgent and review exposure (management LIFs, ONTAP S3, SnapMirror endpoints).
Harden in parallel: security hardening baseline and ransomware protection on ONTAP.