Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-53029

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.91 / 6.1 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: octeontx2-pf: Fix the use of GFP_KERNEL in atomic context on rt The commit 4af1b64f80fb ("octeontx2-pf: Fix lmtst ID used in aura free") uses the get/put_cpu() to protect the usage of percpu pointer in ->aura_freeptr() callback, but it also unnecessarily disable the preemption for the blockable memory allocation. The commit 87b93b678e95 ("octeontx2-pf: Avoid use of GFP_KERNEL in atomic context") tried to fix these sleep inside atomic warnings. But it only fix the one for the non-rt kernel. For the rt kernel, we still get the similar warnings like below. BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:46 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 1, name: swapper/0 preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 3 locks held by swapper/0/1: #0: ffff800009fc5fe8 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: rtnl_lock+0x24/0x30 #1: ffff000100c276c0 (&mbox->lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: otx2_init_hw_resources+0x8c/0x3a4 #2: ffffffbfef6537e0 (&cpu_rcache->lock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: alloc_iova_fast+0x1ac/0x2ac Preemption disabled at: [<ffff800008b1908c>] otx2_rq_aura_pool_init+0x14c/0x284 CPU: 20 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 6.2.0-rc3-rt1-yocto-preempt-rt #1 Hardware name: Marvell OcteonTX CN96XX board (DT) Call trace: dump_backtrace.part.0+0xe8/0xf4 show_stack+0x20/0x30 dump_stack_lvl+0x9c/0xd8 dump_stack+0x18/0x34 __might_resched+0x188/0x224 rt_spin_lock+0x64/0x110 alloc_iova_fast+0x1ac/0x2ac iommu_dma_alloc_iova+0xd4/0x110 __iommu_dma_map+0x80/0x144 iommu_dma_map_page+0xe8/0x260 dma_map_page_attrs+0xb4/0xc0 __otx2_alloc_rbuf+0x90/0x150 otx2_rq_aura_pool_init+0x1c8/0x284 otx2_init_hw_resources+0xe4/0x3a4 otx2_open+0xf0/0x610 __dev_open+0x104/0x224 __dev_change_flags+0x1e4/0x274 dev_change_flags+0x2c/0x7c ic_open_devs+0x124/0x2f8 ip_auto_config+0x180/0x42c do_one_initcall+0x90/0x4dc do_basic_setup+0x10c/0x14c kernel_init_freeable+0x10c/0x13c kernel_init+0x2c/0x140 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 Of course, we can shuffle the get/put_cpu() to only wrap the invocation of ->aura_freeptr() as what commit 87b93b678e95 does. But there are only two ->aura_freeptr() callbacks, otx2_aura_freeptr() and cn10k_aura_freeptr(). There is no usage of perpcu variable in the otx2_aura_freeptr() at all, so the get/put_cpu() seems redundant to it. We can move the get/put_cpu() into the corresponding callback which really has the percpu variable usage and avoid the sprinkling of get/put_cpu() in several places.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 5.15.87, < 5.15.91>= 6.0.19, < 6.1>= 6.1.5, < 6.1.8= 6.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.15.91 / 6.1 / 6.1.8 or later
Fixed in 5.15.916.16.1.8
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.15.91, 6.1.8, or 6.3+ (depending on your base version branch)

  1. Identify the current running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. For Linux distributions: check if your distribution vendor has released a kernel update that includes the fix (commit 29e9c67bf3271067735c188e95cf3631ecd64d58)
  3. If no vendor update available, upgrade to a fixed kernel version as specified in upgrade_path
  4. Reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches or exceeds the fixed release
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require matching module recompilation; ensure all proprietary drivers are compatible with the new kernel version before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-53029 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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