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TI-2023-29956 Aliases CVE-2023-53668GHSA-r233-79v5-5734

ring-buffer: Fix deadloop issue on reading trace_pipe

Priority LOW 30CWE-125Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ring-buffer: Fix deadloop issue on reading trace_pipe Soft lockup occurs when reading file 'trace_pipe': watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#6 stuck for 22s! [cat:4488] [...] RIP: 0010:ring_buffer_empty_cpu+0xed/0x170 RSP: 0018:ffff88810dd6fc48 EFLAGS: 00000246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000246 RCX: ffffffff93d1aaeb RDX: ffff88810a280040 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffff88811164b218 RBP: ffff88811164b218 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff88815156600f R10: ffffed102a2acc01 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000051651901 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff888115e49500 R15: 0000000000000000 [...] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f8d853c2000 CR3: 000000010dcd8000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: __find_next_entry+0x1a8/0x4b0 ? peek_next_entry+0x250/0x250 ? down_write+0xa5/0x120 ? down_write_killable+0x130/0x130 trace_find_next_entry_inc+0x3b/0x1d0 tracing_read_pipe+0x423/0xae0 ? tracing_splice_read_pipe+0xcb0/0xcb0 vfs_read+0x16b/0x490 ksys_read+0x105/0x210 ? __ia32_sys_pwrite64+0x200/0x200 ? switch_fpu_return+0x108/0x220 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x61/0xc6 Through the vmcore, I found it's because in tracing_read_pipe(), ring_buffer_empty_cpu() found some buffer is not empty but then it cannot read anything due to "rb_num_of_entries() == 0" always true, Then it infinitely loop the procedure due to user buffer not been filled, see following code path: tracing_read_pipe() { ... ... waitagain: tracing_wait_pipe() // 1. find non-empty buffer here trace_find_next_entry_inc() // 2. loop here try to find an entry __find_next_entry() ring_buffer_empty_cpu(); // 3. find non-empty buffer peek_next_entry() // 4. but peek always return NULL ring_buffer_peek() rb_buffer_peek() rb_get_reader_page() // 5. because rb_num_of_entries() == 0 always true here // then return NULL // 6. user buffer not been filled so goto 'waitgain' // and eventually leads to an deadloop in kernel!!! } By some analyzing, I found that when resetting ringbuffer, the 'entries' of its pages are not all cleared (see rb_reset_cpu()). Then when reducing the ringbuffer, and if some reduced pages exist dirty 'entries' data, they will be added into 'cpu_buffer->overrun' (see rb_remove_pages()), which cause wrong 'overrun' count and eventually cause the deadloop issue. To fix it, we need to clear every pages in rb_reset_cpu().

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00152 4th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 4.14.322, 4.19.291, 5.4.251 +5Red Hat: 3 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux3.6 and later4.14.322, 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5, 6.5Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 3.6 and later Fixed in 4.14.322, 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5, 6.5 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 2

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*3.6 to before 4.14.322; 4.15 to before 4.19.291; 4.20 to before 5.4.251; 5.5 to before 5.10.188; 5.11 to before 5.15.121; 5.16 to before 6.1.40; 6.2 to before 6.4.5VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*6.5 rc1VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 3.6 to before 4.14.322; 4.15 to before 4.19.291; 4.20 to before 5.4.251; 5.5 to before 5.10.188; 5.11 to before 5.15.121; 5.16 to before 6.1.40; 6.2 to before 6.4.5 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.5 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 4.14.322, 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5, 6.5

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 2 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-53668
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-r233-79v5-5734
  3. 2026-11-05 CISA SSVC decision points changed

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources