# CVE-2023-53583: perf: RISC-V: Remove PERF_HES_STOPPED flag checking in riscv_pmu_start() > A missing flag check in the RISC-V PMU driver causes a kernel warning and potential instability during perf event throttling, requiring a patch. - **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:** 4 Oct 2025 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53583, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53583, GHSA-fr5x-v6h2-7cvx, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53583 ## What is CVE-2023-53583? CVE-2023-53583 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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: perf: RISC-V: Remove PERF_HES_STOPPED flag checking in riscv_pmu_start() Since commit 096b52fd2bb4 ("perf: RISC-V: throttle perf events") the perf_sample_event_took() function was added to report time spent in overflow interrupts. If the interrupt takes too long, the perf framework will lower the sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate and max_samples_per_tick. When hwc->interrupts is larger than max_samples_per_tick, the hwc->interrupts will be set to MAX_INTERRUPTS, and events will be throttled within the __perf_event_account_interrupt() function. However, the RISC-V PMU driver doesn't call riscv_pmu_stop() to update the PERF_HES_STOPPED flag after perf_event_overflow() in pmu_sbi_ovf_handler() function to avoid throttling. When the perf framework unthrottled the event in the timer interrupt handler, it triggers riscv_pmu_start() function and causes a WARN_ON_ONCE() warning, as shown below: ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 240 at drivers/perf/riscv_pmu.c:184 riscv_pmu_start+0x7c/0x8e Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 240 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.4-rc4-g19d0788e9ef2 #1 Hardware name: SiFive (DT) epc : riscv_pmu_start+0x7c/0x8e ra : riscv_pmu_start+0x28/0x8e epc : ffffffff80aef864 ra : ffffffff80aef810 sp : ffff8f80004db6f0 gp : ffffffff81c83750 tp : ffffaf80069f9bc0 t0 : ffff8f80004db6c0 t1 : 0000000000000000 t2 : 000000000000001f s0 : ffff8f80004db720 s1 : ffffaf8008ca1068 a0 : 0000ffffffffffff a1 : 0000000000000000 a2 : 0000000000000001 a3 : 0000000000000870 a4 : 0000000000000000 a5 : 0000000000000000 a6 : 0000000000000840 a7 : 0000000000000030 s2 : 0000000000000000 s3 : ffffaf8005165800 s4 : ffffaf800424da00 s5 : ffffffffffffffff s6 : ffffffff81cc7590 s7 : 0000000000000000 s8 : 0000000000000006 s9 : 0000000000000001 s10: ffffaf807efbc340 s11: ffffaf807efbbf00 t3 : ffffaf8006a16028 t4 : 00000000dbfbb796 t5 : 0000000700000000 t6 : ffffaf8005269870 status: 0000000200000100 badaddr: 0000000000000000 cause: 0000000000000003 [] riscv_pmu_start+0x7c/0x8e [] perf_adjust_freq_unthr_context+0x15e/0x174 [] perf_event_task_tick+0x88/0x9c [] scheduler_tick+0xfe/0x27c [] update_process_times+0x9a/0xba [] tick_sched_handle+0x32/0x66 [] tick_sched_timer+0x64/0xb0 [] __hrtimer_run_queues+0x156/0x2f4 [] hrtimer_interrupt+0xe2/0x1fe [] riscv_timer_interrupt+0x38/0x42 [] handle_percpu_devid_irq+0x90/0x1d2 [] generic_handle_domain_irq+0x28/0x36 After referring other PMU drivers like Arm, Loongarch, Csky, and Mips, they don't call *_pmu_stop() to update with PERF_HES_STOPPED flag after perf_event_overflow() function nor do they add PERF_HES_STOPPED flag checking in *_pmu_start() which don't cause this warning. Thus, it's recommended to remove this unnecessary check in riscv_pmu_start() function to prevent this warning. ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53583? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2023-53583? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2023-53583 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53583 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-2023-53583 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2023-53583 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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-2023-53583 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-2023-53583/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53583/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53583 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53583 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53583 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53583/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.