CVE-2023-53368

Source
https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53368
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-53368.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CVE-2023-53368
Downstream
Related
Published
2025-09-17T14:56:56.752Z
Modified
2026-04-02T09:44:04.809635Z
Severity
  • 4.7 (Medium) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H CVSS Calculator
Summary
tracing: Fix race issue between cpu buffer write and swap
Details

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

tracing: Fix race issue between cpu buffer write and swap

Warning happened in rbendcommit() at code: if (RBWARNON(cpubuffer, !localread(&cpu_buffer->committing)))

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 139 at kernel/trace/ringbuffer.c:3142 rbcommit+0x402/0x4a0 Call Trace: ringbufferunlockcommit+0x42/0x250 tracebufferunlockcommitregs+0x3b/0x250 traceeventbuffercommit+0xe5/0x440 traceeventbufferreserve+0x11c/0x150 traceeventraweventschedswitch+0x23c/0x2c0 __traceiterschedswitch+0x59/0x80 _schedule+0x72b/0x1580 schedule+0x92/0x120 workerthread+0xa0/0x6f0

It is because the race between writing event into cpu buffer and swapping cpu buffer through file per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot:

Write on CPU 0 Swap buffer by percpu/cpu0/snapshot on CPU 1 -------- -------- tracingsnapshot_write() [...]

ringbufferlockreserve() cpubuffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // 1. Suppose find 'cpubuffera'; [...] rbreservenext_event() [...]

                           ring_buffer_swap_cpu()
                             if (local_read(&cpu_buffer_a->committing))
                                 goto out_dec;
                             if (local_read(&cpu_buffer_b->committing))
                                 goto out_dec;
                             buffer_a->buffers[cpu] = cpu_buffer_b;
                             buffer_b->buffers[cpu] = cpu_buffer_a;
                             // 2. cpu_buffer has swapped here.

  rb_start_commit(cpu_buffer);
  if (unlikely(READ_ONCE(cpu_buffer->buffer)
      != buffer)) { // 3. This check passed due to 'cpu_buffer->buffer'
    [...]           //    has not changed here.
    return NULL;
  }
                             cpu_buffer_b->buffer = buffer_a;
                             cpu_buffer_a->buffer = buffer_b;
                             [...]

  // 4. Reserve event from 'cpu_buffer_a'.

ringbufferunlockcommit() [...] cpubuffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // 5. Now find 'cpubufferb' !!! rbcommit(cpubuffer) rbendcommit() // 6. WARN for the wrong 'committing' state !!!

Based on above analysis, we can easily reproduce by following testcase:

#!/bin/bash

dmesg -n 7
sysctl -w kernel.panic_on_warn=1
TR=/sys/kernel/tracing
echo 7 > ${TR}/buffer_size_kb
echo "sched:sched_switch" > ${TR}/set_event
while [ true ]; do
        echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot
done &
while [ true ]; do
        echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot
done &
while [ true ]; do
        echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot
done &
  

To fix it, IIUC, we can use smpcallfunction_single() to do the swap on the target cpu where the buffer is located, so that above race would be avoided.

Database specific
{
    "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53368.json",
    "cna_assigner": "Linux"
}
References

Affected packages

Git / git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git

Affected ranges

Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
f1affcaaa861f27752a769f889bf1486ebd301fe
Fixed
90e037cabc2c2dfc39b3dd9c5b22ea91f995539a
Fixed
c5d30d6aa83d99fba8dfdd9cf6c4e4e7a63244db
Fixed
6182318ac04648b46db9d441fd7d696337fcdd0b
Fixed
74c85396bd73eca80b96510b4edf93b9a3aff75f
Fixed
89c89da92a60028013f9539be0dcce7e44405a43
Fixed
37ca1b686078b00cc4ffa008e2190615f7709b5d
Fixed
3163f635b20e9e1fb4659e74f47918c9dddfe64e

Database specific

source
"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-53368.json"