In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix race issue between cpu buffer write and swap Warning happened in rb_end_commit() at code: if (RB_WARN_ON(cpu_buffer, !local_read(&cpu_buffer->committing))) WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 139 at kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c:3142 rb_commit+0x402/0x4a0 Call Trace: ring_buffer_unlock_commit+0x42/0x250 trace_buffer_unlock_commit_regs+0x3b/0x250 trace_event_buffer_commit+0xe5/0x440 trace_event_buffer_reserve+0x11c/0x150 trace_event_raw_event_sched_switch+0x23c/0x2c0 __traceiter_sched_switch+0x59/0x80 __schedule+0x72b/0x1580 schedule+0x92/0x120 worker_thread+0xa0/0x6f0 It is because the race between writing event into cpu buffer and swapping cpu buffer through file per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot: Write on CPU 0 Swap buffer by per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot on CPU 1 -------- -------- tracing_snapshot_write() [...] ring_buffer_lock_reserve() cpu_buffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // 1. Suppose find 'cpu_buffer_a'; [...] rb_reserve_next_event() [...] ring_buffer_swap_cpu() if (local_read(&cpu_buffer_a->committing)) goto out_dec; if (local_read(&cpu_buffer_b->committing)) goto out_dec; buffer_a->buffers[cpu] = cpu_buffer_b; buffer_b->buffers[cpu] = cpu_buffer_a; // 2. cpu_buffer has swapped here. rb_start_commit(cpu_buffer); if (unlikely(READ_ONCE(cpu_buffer->buffer) != buffer)) { // 3. This check passed due to 'cpu_buffer->buffer' [...] // has not changed here. return NULL; } cpu_buffer_b->buffer = buffer_a; cpu_buffer_a->buffer = buffer_b; [...] // 4. Reserve event from 'cpu_buffer_a'. ring_buffer_unlock_commit() [...] cpu_buffer = buffer->buffers[cpu]; // 5. Now find 'cpu_buffer_b' !!! rb_commit(cpu_buffer) rb_end_commit() // 6. WARN for the wrong 'committing' state !!! Based on above analysis, we can easily reproduce by following testcase: ``` bash #!/bin/bash dmesg -n 7 sysctl -w kernel.panic_on_warn=1 TR=/sys/kernel/tracing echo 7 > ${TR}/buffer_size_kb echo "sched:sched_switch" > ${TR}/set_event while [ true ]; do echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot done & while [ true ]; do echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot done & while [ true ]; do echo 1 > ${TR}/per_cpu/cpu0/snapshot done & ``` To fix it, IIUC, we can use smp_call_function_single() to do the swap on the target cpu where the buffer is located, so that above race would be avoided.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53368 is rated Low Risk (20.6/100): 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.
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 | 2025-09-18 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (1 record total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.7 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.0 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 4.7 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.0 | 3.6 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2023-53368 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53368 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53368 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53368/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2023-53368 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 141, not-affected 74, needed 19, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53368 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 3.10, < 5.4.257 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.5, < 5.10.195 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.11, < 5.15.132 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.16, < 6.1.53 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.2, < 6.4.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.5, < 6.5.3 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |