Vulnerability · Published Dec 9, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53823block/rq_qos: protect rq_qos apis with a new lock

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 9% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 91.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: block/rq_qos: protect rq_qos apis with a new lock commit 50e34d78815e ("block: disable the elevator int del_gendisk") move rq_qos_exit() from disk_release() to del_gendisk(), this will introduce some problems: 1) If rq_qos_add() is triggered by enabling iocost/iolatency through cgroupfs, then it can concurrent with del_gendisk(), it's not safe to write 'q->rq_qos' concurrently. 2) Activate cgroup policy that is relied on rq_qos will call rq_qos_add() and blkcg_activate_policy(), and if rq_qos_exit() is called in the middle, null-ptr-dereference will be triggered in blkcg_activate_policy(). 3) blkg_conf_open_bdev() can call blkdev_get_no_open() first to find the disk, then if rq_qos_exit() from del_gendisk() is done before rq_qos_add(), then memory will be leaked. This patch add a new disk level mutex 'rq_qos_mutex': 1) The lock will protect rq_qos_exit() directly. 2) For wbt that doesn't relied on blk-cgroup, rq_qos_add() can only be called from disk initialization for now because wbt can't be destructed until rq_qos_exit(), so it's safe not to protect wbt for now. Hoever, in case that rq_qos dynamically destruction is supported in the furture, this patch also protect rq_qos_add() from wbt_init() directly, this is enough because blk-sysfs already synchronize writers with disk removal. 3) For iocost and iolatency, in order to synchronize disk removal and cgroup configuration, the lock is held after blkdev_get_no_open() from blkg_conf_open_bdev(), and is released in blkg_conf_exit(). In order to fix the above memory leak, disk_live() is checked after holding the new lock.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linuxno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2023-53823
Debian:13linux6.4.4-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53823
Debian:14linux6.4.4-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53823

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 50e34d78815e474d410f342fbe783b18192ca518 – before f54c4ab8ffecf621ab20fb6d2b194af93616cd7e50e34d78815e474d410f342fbe783b18192ca518 – before 16398b4638b5cd8c1dc95fc940a1591a801d53ce50e34d78815e474d410f342fbe783b18192ca518 – before a13bd91be22318768d55470cbc0b0f4488ef9edff28699fafc047ec33299da01e928c3a0073c5cc65.18.8 – before 5.19
Linux Linux 5.19

References