CVE-2023-53099 firmware: xilinx: don't make a sleepable memory allocation from an atomic context
A bug in the Xilinx firmware driver causes a kernel panic by attempting sleepable memory allocation in an atomic context, leading to system crash.
- 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-2023-53099?
CVE-2023-53099 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 May 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:
firmware: xilinx: don't make a sleepable memory allocation from an atomic context
The following issue was discovered using lockdep: [ 6.691371] BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at include/linux/sched/mm.h:209 [ 6.694602] in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 128, non_block: 0, pid: 1, name: swapper/0 [ 6.702431] 2 locks held by swapper/0/1: [ 6.706300] #0: ffffff8800f6f188 (&dev->mutex){....}-{3:3}, at: __device_driver_lock+0x4c/0x90 [ 6.714900] #1: ffffffc009a2abb8 (enable_lock){....}-{2:2}, at: clk_enable_lock+0x4c/0x140 [ 6.723156] irq event stamp: 304030 [ 6.726596] hardirqs last enabled at (304029): [<ffffffc008d17ee0>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0xc0/0xd0 [ 6.736142] hardirqs last disabled at (304030): [<ffffffc00876bc5c>] clk_enable_lock+0xfc/0x140 [ 6.744742] softirqs last enabled at (303958): [<ffffffc0080904f0>] _stext+0x4f0/0x894 [ 6.752655] softirqs last disabled at (303951): [<ffffffc0080e53b8>] irq_exit+0x238/0x280 [ 6.760744] CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G U 5.15.36 #2 [ 6.768048] Hardware name: xlnx,zynqmp (DT) [ 6.772179] Call trace: [ 6.774584] dump_backtrace+0x0/0x300 [ 6.778197] show_stack+0x18/0x30 [ 6.781465] dump_stack_lvl+0xb8/0xec [ 6.785077] dump_stack+0x1c/0x38 [ 6.788345] ___might_sleep+0x1a8/0x2a0 [ 6.792129] __might_sleep+0x6c/0xd0 [ 6.795655] kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x270/0x3d0 [ 6.800127] do_feature_check_call+0x100/0x220 [ 6.804513] zynqmp_pm_invoke_fn+0x8c/0xb0 [ 6.808555] zynqmp_pm_clock_getstate+0x90/0xe0 [ 6.813027] zynqmp_pll_is_enabled+0x8c/0x120 [ 6.817327] zynqmp_pll_enable+0x38/0xc0 [ 6.821197] clk_core_enable+0x144/0x400 [ 6.825067] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.828851] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.832635] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.836419] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.840203] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.843987] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.847771] clk_core_enable+0xd4/0x400 [ 6.851555] clk_core_enable_lock+0x24/0x50 [ 6.855683] clk_enable+0x24/0x40 [ 6.858952] fclk_probe+0x84/0xf0 [ 6.862220] platform_probe+0x8c/0x110 [ 6.865918] really_probe+0x110/0x5f0 [ 6.869530] __driver_probe_device+0xcc/0x210 [ 6.873830] driver_probe_device+0x64/0x140 [ 6.877958] __driver_attach+0x114/0x1f0 [ 6.881828] bus_for_each_dev+0xe8/0x160 [ 6.885698] driver_attach+0x34/0x50 [ 6.889224] bus_add_driver+0x228/0x300 [ 6.893008] driver_register+0xc0/0x1e0 [ 6.896792] __platform_driver_register+0x44/0x60 [ 6.901436] fclk_driver_init+0x1c/0x28 [ 6.905220] do_one_initcall+0x104/0x590 [ 6.909091] kernel_init_freeable+0x254/0x2bc [ 6.913390] kernel_init+0x24/0x130 [ 6.916831] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
Fix it by passing the GFP_ATOMIC gfp flag for the corresponding memory allocation.
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53099?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53099?
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-2023-53099 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53099 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53099, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53099, GHSA-jgfw-fjpj-4wm9, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53099.