# CVE-2023-52484: iommu/arm-smmu-v3: Fix soft lockup triggered by arm_smmu_mm_invalidate_range

> A soft lockup in the Linux kernel's ARM SMMU driver can cause a denial of service during memory unmapping operations.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Feb 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52484, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52484, GHSA-6vr7-4hpq-76r6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-52484, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52484

## What is CVE-2023-52484?

CVE-2023-52484 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

iommu/arm-smmu-v3: Fix soft lockup triggered by arm_smmu_mm_invalidate_range

When running an SVA case, the following soft lockup is triggered:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#244 stuck for 26s!
pstate: 83400009 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
pc : arm_smmu_cmdq_issue_cmdlist+0x178/0xa50
lr : arm_smmu_cmdq_issue_cmdlist+0x150/0xa50
sp : ffff8000d83ef290
x29: ffff8000d83ef290 x28: 000000003b9aca00 x27: 0000000000000000
x26: ffff8000d83ef3c0 x25: da86c0812194a0e8 x24: 0000000000000000
x23: 0000000000000040 x22: ffff8000d83ef340 x21: ffff0000c63980c0
x20: 0000000000000001 x19: ffff0000c6398080 x18: 0000000000000000
x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: ffff3000b4a3bbb0
x14: ffff3000b4a30888 x13: ffff3000b4a3cf60 x12: 0000000000000000
x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffc08120e4d6bc
x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000048cfa
x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : 000000000000000a
x2 : 0000000080000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000001
Call trace:
 arm_smmu_cmdq_issue_cmdlist+0x178/0xa50
 __arm_smmu_tlb_inv_range+0x118/0x254
 arm_smmu_tlb_inv_range_asid+0x6c/0x130
 arm_smmu_mm_invalidate_range+0xa0/0xa4
 __mmu_notifier_invalidate_range_end+0x88/0x120
 unmap_vmas+0x194/0x1e0
 unmap_region+0xb4/0x144
 do_mas_align_munmap+0x290/0x490
 do_mas_munmap+0xbc/0x124
 __vm_munmap+0xa8/0x19c
 __arm64_sys_munmap+0x28/0x50
 invoke_syscall+0x78/0x11c
 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x58/0x1c0
 do_el0_svc+0x34/0x60
 el0_svc+0x2c/0xd4
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x114/0x140
 el0t_64_sync+0x1a4/0x1a8
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Note that since 6.6-rc1 the arm_smmu_mm_invalidate_range above is renamed
to "arm_smmu_mm_arch_invalidate_secondary_tlbs", yet the problem remains.

The commit 06ff87bae8d3 ("arm64: mm: remove unused functions and variable
protoypes") fixed a similar lockup on the CPU MMU side. Yet, it can occur
to SMMU too, since arm_smmu_mm_arch_invalidate_secondary_tlbs() is called
typically next to MMU tlb flush function, e.g.
	tlb_flush_mmu_tlbonly {
		tlb_flush {
			__flush_tlb_range {
				// check MAX_TLBI_OPS
			}
		}
		mmu_notifier_arch_invalidate_secondary_tlbs {
			arm_smmu_mm_arch_invalidate_secondary_tlbs {
				// does not check MAX_TLBI_OPS
			}
		}
	}

Clone a CMDQ_MAX_TLBI_OPS from the MAX_TLBI_OPS in tlbflush.h, since in an
SVA case SMMU uses the CPU page table, so it makes sense to align with the
tlbflush code. Then, replace per-page TLBI commands with a single per-asid
TLBI command, if the request size hits this threshold.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52484?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52484?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52484 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52484 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52484 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52484 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52484 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52484/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52484/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52484
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52484
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52484

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52484/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.