CVE-2023-54268
Lockdep Warning in Linux Kernel debugobjects Causes Deadlock Risk
Publication date: 2025-12-30
Last updated on: 2025-12-30
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves the debugobjects component where the fill_pool() function uses GFP_ATOMIC allocation flags that can wake up the kswapd process. This is problematic because fill_pool() might be called while arbitrary locks are held, and waking up kswapd requires acquiring a lock (kswapd_wait::lock) that may not be safe to acquire in that context. The fix involves changing the allocation flags to __GFP_HIGH and removing __GFP_NORETRY to avoid waking up kswapd and prevent potential lock dependency issues.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can lead to lock dependency warnings and potentially unsafe locking behavior in the Linux kernel, which might cause system instability or deadlocks if fill_pool() is called with locks held and kswapd is woken up improperly. This could affect system reliability and performance.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
The vulnerability has been resolved by modifying the Linux kernel code to avoid waking up kswapd from fill_pool() when it is unsafe. To mitigate this vulnerability, you should update your Linux kernel to a version that includes this fix where fill_pool() uses __GFP_HIGH instead of GFP_ATOMIC and removes __GFP_NORETRY for the relevant allocations.