CVE-2023-52559 iommu/vt-d: Avoid memory allocation in iommu_suspend()

Medium 5.5 Published 2 Mar 2024 Updated 11 May 2026

A local attacker can trigger intermittent suspend or hibernation failures in the Linux kernel by exploiting improper memory allocation handling in the IOMMU suspend callback.

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

What is CVE-2023-52559?

CVE-2023-52559 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 Mar 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/vt-d: Avoid memory allocation in iommu_suspend()

The iommu_suspend() syscore suspend callback is invoked with IRQ disabled. Allocating memory with the GFP_KERNEL flag may re-enable IRQs during the suspend callback, which can cause intermittent suspend/hibernation problems with the following kernel traces:

Calling iommu_suspend+0x0/0x1d0 ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 15 at kernel/time/timekeeping.c:868 ktime_get+0x9b/0xb0 ... CPU: 0 PID: 15 Comm: rcu_preempt Tainted: G U E 6.3-intel #r1 RIP: 0010:ktime_get+0x9b/0xb0 ... Call Trace: <IRQ> tick_sched_timer+0x22/0x90 ? __pfx_tick_sched_timer+0x10/0x10 __hrtimer_run_queues+0x111/0x2b0 hrtimer_interrupt+0xfa/0x230 __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x63/0x140 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x7b/0xa0 </IRQ> <TASK> asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x1f/0x30 ... ------------[ cut here ]------------ Interrupts enabled after iommu_suspend+0x0/0x1d0 WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 27420 at drivers/base/syscore.c:68 syscore_suspend+0x147/0x270 CPU: 0 PID: 27420 Comm: rtcwake Tainted: G U W E 6.3-intel #r1 RIP: 0010:syscore_suspend+0x147/0x270 ... Call Trace: <TASK> hibernation_snapshot+0x25b/0x670 hibernate+0xcd/0x390 state_store+0xcf/0xe0 kobj_attr_store+0x13/0x30 sysfs_kf_write+0x3f/0x50 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x128/0x200 vfs_write+0x1fd/0x3c0 ksys_write+0x6f/0xf0 __x64_sys_write+0x1d/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

Given that only 4 words memory is needed, avoid the memory allocation in iommu_suspend().

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52559?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-52559?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2023-52559 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52559 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-52559, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52559, GHSA-94pf-4p5q-jc3r, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52559.