hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data The virtio rng device kicks off a new entropy request whenever the data available reaches zero. When a new request occurs at the end of a read operation, that is, when the result of that request is only needed by the next reader, then there is a race between the writing of the new data and the next reader. This is because there is no synchronisation whatsoever between the writer and the reader. Fix this by writing data_avail with smp_store_release and reading it with smp_load_acquire when we first enter read. The subsequent reads are safe because they're either protected by the first load acquire, or by the completion mechanism. Also remove the redundant zeroing of data_idx in random_recv_done (data_idx must already be zero at this point) and data_avail in request_entropy (ditto).
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 4.19.291, 5.4.251, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.3.13, 6.4.4, 6.5
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-53998
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-g2vv-m9x5-457j
References
Other 8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/241ef15776a7c8505008db689175b320d345ecd3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a43bcb0b661cbbf3ad797d2aee6b6fd06b8fc69d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77471e4912d3960dafe141e268c44be8024fe4dc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c76d991b6f01a5d931e7053a73bc9524975a5215
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22c30022cde6e2c88612b3a499223cfa912f1bc7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/318657b4c2077289659f1cd9e2a34f6a3b208e3e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fc91f156b3f3446a1bce80cf4adedcbf41271c2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac52578d6e8d300dd50f790f29a24169b1edd26c
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Sources
- CVE-2023-53998 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-53998 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-g2vv-m9x5-457j · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2023-53998 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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