CVE-2023-53135 riscv: Use READ_ONCE_NOCHECK in imprecise unwinding stack mode

High 7.1 Published 2 May 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A stack-out-of-bounds read in the RISC-V kernel unwinder can cause a kernel crash when KASAN is enabled and frame pointers are disabled.

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-2023-53135?

CVE-2023-53135 is a high-severity memory corruption 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:

riscv: Use READ_ONCE_NOCHECK in imprecise unwinding stack mode

When CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER is unset, the stack unwinding function walk_stackframe randomly reads the stack and then, when KASAN is enabled, it can lead to the following backtrace:

[ 0.000000] ================================================================== [ 0.000000] BUG: KASAN: stack-out-of-bounds in walk_stackframe+0xa6/0x11a [ 0.000000] Read of size 8 at addr ffffffff81807c40 by task swapper/0 [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 6.2.0-12919-g24203e6db61f #43 [ 0.000000] Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT) [ 0.000000] Call Trace: [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80007ba8>] walk_stackframe+0x0/0x11a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80099ecc>] init_param_lock+0x26/0x2a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80007c4a>] walk_stackframe+0xa2/0x11a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80c49c80>] dump_stack_lvl+0x22/0x36 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80c3783e>] print_report+0x198/0x4a8 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80099ecc>] init_param_lock+0x26/0x2a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80007c4a>] walk_stackframe+0xa2/0x11a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8015f68a>] kasan_report+0x9a/0xc8 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80007c4a>] walk_stackframe+0xa2/0x11a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80007c4a>] walk_stackframe+0xa2/0x11a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8006e99c>] desc_make_final+0x80/0x84 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8009a04e>] stack_trace_save+0x88/0xa6 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80099fc2>] filter_irq_stacks+0x72/0x76 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8006b95e>] devkmsg_read+0x32a/0x32e [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8015ec16>] kasan_save_stack+0x28/0x52 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8006e998>] desc_make_final+0x7c/0x84 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8009a04a>] stack_trace_save+0x84/0xa6 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8015ec52>] kasan_set_track+0x12/0x20 [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8015f22e>] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x58/0x5e [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff8015e7ea>] __kmem_cache_create+0x21e/0x39a [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80e133ac>] create_boot_cache+0x70/0x9c [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80e17ab2>] kmem_cache_init+0x6c/0x11e [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80e00fd6>] mm_init+0xd8/0xfe [ 0.000000] [<ffffffff80e011d8>] start_kernel+0x190/0x3ca [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] The buggy address belongs to stack of task swapper/0 [ 0.000000] and is located at offset 0 in frame: [ 0.000000] stack_trace_save+0x0/0xa6 [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] This frame has 1 object: [ 0.000000] [32, 56) 'c' [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] The buggy address belongs to the physical page: [ 0.000000] page:(____ptrval____) refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x81a07 [ 0.000000] flags: 0x1000(reserved|zone=0) [ 0.000000] raw: 0000000000001000 ff600003f1e3d150 ff600003f1e3d150 0000000000000000 [ 0.000000] raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000001ffffffff [ 0.000000] page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] Memory state around the buggy address: [ 0.000000] ffffffff81807b00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 0.000000] ffffffff81807b80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 0.000000] >ffffffff81807c00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f1 f1 f1 f1 00 00 00 f3 [ 0.000000] ^ [ 0.000000] ffffffff81807c80: f3 f3 f3 f3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 0.000000] ffffffff81807d00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 0.000000] ==================================================================

Fix that by using READ_ONCE_NOCHECK when reading the stack in imprecise mode.

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53135?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53135?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2023-53135 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53135 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53135, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53135, GHSA-2c79-g4hv-82qp, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53135.