CVE-2023-53795 | iommufd: IOMMUFD_DESTROY should not increase the refcount

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommufd: IOMMUFD_DESTROY should not increase the refcount syzkaller found a race where IOMMUFD_DESTROY increments the refcount: obj = iommufd_get_object(ucmd->ictx, cmd->id, IOMMUFD_OBJ_ANY); if (IS_ERR(obj)) return PTR_ERR(obj); iommufd_ref_to_users(obj); /* See iommufd_ref_to_users() */ if (!iommufd_object_destroy_user(ucmd->ictx, obj)) As part of the sequence to join the two existing primitives together. Allowing the refcount the be elevated without holding the destroy_rwsem violates the assumption that all temporary refcount elevations are protected by destroy_rwsem. Racing IOMMUFD_DESTROY with iommufd_object_destroy_user() will cause spurious failures: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 3076 at drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c:477 iommufd_access_destroy+0x18/0x20 drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c:478 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 3076 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc1-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/03/2023 RIP: 0010:iommufd_access_destroy+0x18/0x20 drivers/iommu/iommufd/device.c:477 Code: e8 3d 4e 00 00 84 c0 74 01 c3 0f 0b c3 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 fe 48 8b bf a8 00 00 00 e8 1d 4e 00 00 84 c0 74 01 c3 <0f> 0b c3 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 57 41 56 41 55 4c 8d ae d0 00 00 00 41 RSP: 0018:ffffc90003067e08 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888109ea0300 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 00000000ffffffff RBP: 0000000000000004 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff88810bbb3500 R10: ffff88810bbb3e48 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffc90003067e88 R13: ffffc90003067ea8 R14: ffff888101249800 R15: 00000000fffffffe FS: 00007ff7254fe6c0(0000) GS:ffff888237c00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000555557262da8 CR3: 000000010a6fd000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> iommufd_test_create_access drivers/iommu/iommufd/selftest.c:596 [inline] iommufd_test+0x71c/0xcf0 drivers/iommu/iommufd/selftest.c:813 iommufd_fops_ioctl+0x10f/0x1b0 drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c:337 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:870 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:856 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x84/0xc0 fs/ioctl.c:856 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd The solution is to not increment the refcount on the IOMMUFD_DESTROY path at all. Instead use the xa_lock to serialize everything. The refcount check == 1 and xa_erase can be done under a single critical region. This avoids the need for any refcount incrementing. It has the downside that if userspace races destroy with other operations it will get an EBUSY instead of waiting, but this is kind of racing is already dangerous.

Published: 2025-12-09 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53795 is rated Low Risk (4/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2023-53795

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 2025-12-09 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53795

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53795

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53795

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-53795 unimportant 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-2023-53795
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53795
suse medium CVE-2023-53795 severity moderate: SUSE including 398 source package names (2.1.3-6.115:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-39.1.21.16, 2.1.3-7.146:kernel-rt-6.4.0-40.1, …), 857 product×package rows across 162 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (162 product lines)): Fixed 414, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 212. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53795/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53795 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 172, not-affected 139, released 84. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53795

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53795

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2023-53795

cvelogic Threat Intelligence