CVE-2023-53421

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 5.5-6.3.13 - NULL Pointer Dereference in blk-cgroup

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: blk-cgroup: Reinit blkg_iostat_set after clearing in blkcg_reset_stats() When blkg_alloc() is called to allocate a blkcg_gq structure with the associated blkg_iostat_set's, there are 2 fields within blkg_iostat_set that requires proper initialization - blkg & sync. The former field was introduced by commit 3b8cc6298724 ("blk-cgroup: Optimize blkcg_rstat_flush()") while the later one was introduced by commit f73316482977 ("blk-cgroup: reimplement basic IO stats using cgroup rstat"). Unfortunately those fields in the blkg_iostat_set's are not properly re-initialized when they are cleared in v1's blkcg_reset_stats(). This can lead to a kernel panic due to NULL pointer access of the blkg pointer. The missing initialization of sync is less problematic and can be a problem in a debug kernel due to missing lockdep initialization. Fix these problems by re-initializing them after memory clearing.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0015
EPSS Percentile 4.6%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-476
Status published
Products (15)
Linux/Linux < 5.5
Linux/Linux 5.10.258 - 5.10.*
Linux/Linux 5.15.199 - 5.15.*
Linux/Linux 5.5
Linux/Linux 6.1.162 - 6.1.*
Linux/Linux 6.3.13 - 6.3.*
Linux/Linux 6.4.4 - 6.4.*
Linux/Linux 6.5
Linux/Linux f73316482977ac401ac37245c9df48079d4e11f3 - 0561aa6033dd181594116d705c41fc16e97161a2
Linux/Linux f73316482977ac401ac37245c9df48079d4e11f3 - 3d2af77e31ade05ff7ccc3658c3635ec1bea0979
... and 5 more
Published Sep 18, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026