# CVE-2023-52982: fscache: Use wait_on_bit() to wait for the freeing of relinquished volume

> A mismatch in wait-queue functions causes the Linux kernel to hang indefinitely during volume acquisition, leading to a denial of service.

- **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:** 27 Mar 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52982, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52982, GHSA-3cvm-96rv-2mw4, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52982

## What is CVE-2023-52982?

CVE-2023-52982 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 2025. 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:

fscache: Use wait_on_bit() to wait for the freeing of relinquished volume

The freeing of relinquished volume will wake up the pending volume
acquisition by using wake_up_bit(), however it is mismatched with
wait_var_event() used in fscache_wait_on_volume_collision() and it will
never wake up the waiter in the wait-queue because these two functions
operate on different wait-queues.

According to the implementation in fscache_wait_on_volume_collision(),
if the wake-up of pending acquisition is delayed longer than 20 seconds
(e.g., due to the delay of on-demand fd closing), the first
wait_var_event_timeout() will timeout and the following wait_var_event()
will hang forever as shown below:

 FS-Cache: Potential volume collision new=00000024 old=00000022
 ......
 INFO: task mount:1148 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
       Not tainted 6.1.0-rc6+ #1
 task:mount           state:D stack:0     pid:1148  ppid:1
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  __schedule+0x2f6/0xb80
  schedule+0x67/0xe0
  fscache_wait_on_volume_collision.cold+0x80/0x82
  __fscache_acquire_volume+0x40d/0x4e0
  erofs_fscache_register_volume+0x51/0xe0 [erofs]
  erofs_fscache_register_fs+0x19c/0x240 [erofs]
  erofs_fc_fill_super+0x746/0xaf0 [erofs]
  vfs_get_super+0x7d/0x100
  get_tree_nodev+0x16/0x20
  erofs_fc_get_tree+0x20/0x30 [erofs]
  vfs_get_tree+0x24/0xb0
  path_mount+0x2fa/0xa90
  do_mount+0x7c/0xa0
  __x64_sys_mount+0x8b/0xe0
  do_syscall_64+0x30/0x60
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

Considering that wake_up_bit() is more selective, so fix it by using
wait_on_bit() instead of wait_var_event() to wait for the freeing of
relinquished volume. In addition because waitqueue_active() is used in
wake_up_bit() and clear_bit() doesn't imply any memory barrier, use
clear_and_wake_up_bit() to add the missing memory barrier between
cursor->flags and waitqueue_active().

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52982?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52982?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52982 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52982 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-2023-52982 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52982 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Mar 2025. 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-2023-52982 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-2023-52982/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52982/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52982
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52982
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52982

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52982/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.