# CVE-2023-53587: ring-buffer: Sync IRQ works before buffer destruction

> A race condition in the Linux kernel ring buffer allows use-after-free, potentially causing crashes or code execution.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53587, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53587, GHSA-7wv9-8c5x-6hmc, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53587

## What is CVE-2023-53587?

CVE-2023-53587 is a high-severity use after free 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:

ring-buffer: Sync IRQ works before buffer destruction

If something was written to the buffer just before destruction,
it may be possible (maybe not in a real system, but it did
happen in ARCH=um with time-travel) to destroy the ringbuffer
before the IRQ work ran, leading this KASAN report (or a crash
without KASAN):

    BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in irq_work_run_list+0x11a/0x13a
    Read of size 8 at addr 000000006d640a48 by task swapper/0

    CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Tainted: G        W  O       6.3.0-rc1 #7
    Stack:
     60c4f20f 0c203d48 41b58ab3 60f224fc
     600477fa 60f35687 60c4f20f 601273dd
     00000008 6101eb00 6101eab0 615be548
    Call Trace:
     [<60047a58>] show_stack+0x25e/0x282
     [<60c609e0>] dump_stack_lvl+0x96/0xfd
     [<60c50d4c>] print_report+0x1a7/0x5a8
     [<603078d3>] kasan_report+0xc1/0xe9
     [<60308950>] __asan_report_load8_noabort+0x1b/0x1d
     [<60232844>] irq_work_run_list+0x11a/0x13a
     [<602328b4>] irq_work_tick+0x24/0x34
     [<6017f9dc>] update_process_times+0x162/0x196
     [<6019f335>] tick_sched_handle+0x1a4/0x1c3
     [<6019fd9e>] tick_sched_timer+0x79/0x10c
     [<601812b9>] __hrtimer_run_queues.constprop.0+0x425/0x695
     [<60182913>] hrtimer_interrupt+0x16c/0x2c4
     [<600486a3>] um_timer+0x164/0x183
     [...]

    Allocated by task 411:
     save_stack_trace+0x99/0xb5
     stack_trace_save+0x81/0x9b
     kasan_save_stack+0x2d/0x54
     kasan_set_track+0x34/0x3e
     kasan_save_alloc_info+0x25/0x28
     ____kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0x97
     __kasan_kmalloc+0x10/0x12
     __kmalloc+0xb2/0xe8
     load_elf_phdrs+0xee/0x182
     [...]

    The buggy address belongs to the object at 000000006d640800
     which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024
    The buggy address is located 584 bytes inside of
     freed 1024-byte region [000000006d640800, 000000006d640c00)

Add the appropriate irq_work_sync() so the work finishes before
the buffers are destroyed.

Prior to the commit in the Fixes tag below, there was only a
single global IRQ work, so this issue didn't exist.

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53587?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53587?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53587 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53587 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-2023-53587 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53587 is a high-severity use after free 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-2023-53587 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-2023-53587/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53587/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53587
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53587
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53587

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53587/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.