# CVE-2023-53620: md: fix soft lockup in status_resync

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's md driver can cause a soft lockup during resync operations, 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:** 7 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-76641, BELL-CVE-2023-53620, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53620, GHSA-gjrx-w6pw-88ph, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53620, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53620, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53620

## What is CVE-2023-53620?

CVE-2023-53620 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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:

md: fix soft lockup in status_resync

status_resync() will calculate 'curr_resync - recovery_active' to show
user a progress bar like following:

[============>........]  resync = 61.4%

'curr_resync' and 'recovery_active' is updated in md_do_sync(), and
status_resync() can read them concurrently, hence it's possible that
'curr_resync - recovery_active' can overflow to a huge number. In this
case status_resync() will be stuck in the loop to print a large amount
of '=', which will end up soft lockup.

Fix the problem by setting 'resync' to MD_RESYNC_ACTIVE in this case,
this way resync in progress will be reported to user.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53620?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53620?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53620 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53620 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-2023-53620 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53620 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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-2023-53620 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-2023-53620/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53620/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53620
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53620
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53620

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53620/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.