CVE-2023-53231 | erofs: Fix detection of atomic context

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: erofs: Fix detection of atomic context Current check for atomic context is not sufficient as z_erofs_decompressqueue_endio can be called under rcu lock from blk_mq_flush_plug_list(). See the stacktrace [1] In such case we should hand off the decompression work for async processing rather than trying to do sync decompression in current context. Patch fixes the detection by checking for rcu_read_lock_any_held() and while at it use more appropriate !in_task() check than in_atomic(). Background: Historically erofs would always schedule a kworker for decompression which would incur the scheduling cost regardless of the context. But z_erofs_decompressqueue_endio() may not always be in atomic context and we could actually benefit from doing the decompression in z_erofs_decompressqueue_endio() if we are in thread context, for example when running with dm-verity. This optimization was later added in patch [2] which has shown improvement in performance benchmarks. ============================================== [1] Problem stacktrace [name:core&]BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:291 [name:core&]in_atomic(): 0, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 1615, name: CpuMonitorServi [name:core&]preempt_count: 0, expected: 0 [name:core&]RCU nest depth: 1, expected: 0 CPU: 7 PID: 1615 Comm: CpuMonitorServi Tainted: G S W OE 6.1.25-android14-5-maybe-dirty-mainline #1 Hardware name: MT6897 (DT) Call trace: dump_backtrace+0x108/0x15c show_stack+0x20/0x30 dump_stack_lvl+0x6c/0x8c dump_stack+0x20/0x48 __might_resched+0x1fc/0x308 __might_sleep+0x50/0x88 mutex_lock+0x2c/0x110 z_erofs_decompress_queue+0x11c/0xc10 z_erofs_decompress_kickoff+0x110/0x1a4 z_erofs_decompressqueue_endio+0x154/0x180 bio_endio+0x1b0/0x1d8 __dm_io_complete+0x22c/0x280 clone_endio+0xe4/0x280 bio_endio+0x1b0/0x1d8 blk_update_request+0x138/0x3a4 blk_mq_plug_issue_direct+0xd4/0x19c blk_mq_flush_plug_list+0x2b0/0x354 __blk_flush_plug+0x110/0x160 blk_finish_plug+0x30/0x4c read_pages+0x2fc/0x370 page_cache_ra_unbounded+0xa4/0x23c page_cache_ra_order+0x290/0x320 do_sync_mmap_readahead+0x108/0x2c0 filemap_fault+0x19c/0x52c __do_fault+0xc4/0x114 handle_mm_fault+0x5b4/0x1168 do_page_fault+0x338/0x4b4 do_translation_fault+0x40/0x60 do_mem_abort+0x60/0xc8 el0_da+0x4c/0xe0 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xd4/0xfc el0t_64_sync+0x1a0/0x1a4 [2] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/

Published: 2025-09-15 Last update: 2026-01-14 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53231 is rated Low Risk (23.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53231

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-09-16 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53231

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53231

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53231

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-53231 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53231
redhat https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53231
suse medium CVE-2023-53231 severity moderate: SUSE including 401 source package names (2.1.3-6.80:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-35.1.21.12, 2.1.3-7.57:kernel-default-6.4.0-35.1, …), 783 product×package rows across 164 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (164 product lines)): Fixed 442, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 110. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53231/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53231 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, ignored 162, released 88, needed 75, not-affected 72. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53231

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53231

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.19, < 6.4.7 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-53231

cvelogic Threat Intelligence