# CVE-2023-53671: srcu: Delegate work to the boot cpu if using SRCU_SIZE_SMALL

> A kernel bug causes a hang during kdump boot on PowerPC when using specific SRCU configurations, leading to 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:** BELL-CVE-2023-53671, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53671, GHSA-9qc3-f88f-6rgp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53671, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53671, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53671

## What is CVE-2023-53671?

CVE-2023-53671 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:

srcu: Delegate work to the boot cpu if using SRCU_SIZE_SMALL

Commit 994f706872e6 ("srcu: Make Tree SRCU able to operate without
snp_node array") assumes that cpu 0 is always online.  However, there
really are situations when some other CPU is the boot CPU, for example,
when booting a kdump kernel with the maxcpus=1 boot parameter.

On PowerPC, the kdump kernel can hang as follows:
...
[    1.740036] systemd[1]: Hostname set to <xyz.com>
[  243.686240] INFO: task systemd:1 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
[  243.686264]       Not tainted 6.1.0-rc1 #1
[  243.686272] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
[  243.686281] task:systemd         state:D stack:0     pid:1     ppid:0      flags:0x00042000
[  243.686296] Call Trace:
[  243.686301] [c000000016657640] [c000000016657670] 0xc000000016657670 (unreliable)
[  243.686317] [c000000016657830] [c00000001001dec0] __switch_to+0x130/0x220
[  243.686333] [c000000016657890] [c000000010f607b8] __schedule+0x1f8/0x580
[  243.686347] [c000000016657940] [c000000010f60bb4] schedule+0x74/0x140
[  243.686361] [c0000000166579b0] [c000000010f699b8] schedule_timeout+0x168/0x1c0
[  243.686374] [c000000016657a80] [c000000010f61de8] __wait_for_common+0x148/0x360
[  243.686387] [c000000016657b20] [c000000010176bb0] __flush_work.isra.0+0x1c0/0x3d0
[  243.686401] [c000000016657bb0] [c0000000105f2768] fsnotify_wait_marks_destroyed+0x28/0x40
[  243.686415] [c000000016657bd0] [c0000000105f21b8] fsnotify_destroy_group+0x68/0x160
[  243.686428] [c000000016657c40] [c0000000105f6500] inotify_release+0x30/0xa0
[  243.686440] [c000000016657cb0] [c0000000105751a8] __fput+0xc8/0x350
[  243.686452] [c000000016657d00] [c00000001017d524] task_work_run+0xe4/0x170
[  243.686464] [c000000016657d50] [c000000010020e94] do_notify_resume+0x134/0x140
[  243.686478] [c000000016657d80] [c00000001002eb18] interrupt_exit_user_prepare_main+0x198/0x270
[  243.686493] [c000000016657de0] [c00000001002ec60] syscall_exit_prepare+0x70/0x180
[  243.686505] [c000000016657e10] [c00000001000bf7c] system_call_vectored_common+0xfc/0x280
[  243.686520] --- interrupt: 3000 at 0x7fffa47d5ba4
[  243.686528] NIP:  00007fffa47d5ba4 LR: 0000000000000000 CTR: 0000000000000000
[  243.686538] REGS: c000000016657e80 TRAP: 3000   Not tainted  (6.1.0-rc1)
[  243.686548] MSR:  800000000000d033 <SF,EE,PR,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE>  CR: 42044440  XER: 00000000
[  243.686572] IRQMASK: 0
[  243.686572] GPR00: 0000000000000006 00007ffffa606710 00007fffa48e7200 0000000000000000
[  243.686572] GPR04: 0000000000000002 000000000000000a 0000000000000000 0000000000000001
[  243.686572] GPR08: 000001000c172dd0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[  243.686572] GPR12: 0000000000000000 00007fffa4ff4bc0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[  243.686572] GPR16: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
[  243.686572] GPR20: 0000000132dfdc50 000000000000000e 0000000000189375 0000000000000000
[  243.686572] GPR24: 00007ffffa606ae0 0000000000000005 000001000c185490 000001000c172570
[  243.686572] GPR28: 000001000c172990 000001000c184850 000001000c172e00 00007fffa4fedd98
[  243.686683] NIP [00007fffa47d5ba4] 0x7fffa47d5ba4
[  243.686691] LR [0000000000000000] 0x0
[  243.686698] --- interrupt: 3000
[  243.686708] INFO: task kworker/u16:1:24 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
[  243.686717]       Not tainted 6.1.0-rc1 #1
[  243.686724] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
[  243.686733] task:kworker/u16:1   state:D stack:0     pid:24    ppid:2      flags:0x00000800
[  243.686747] Workqueue: events_unbound fsnotify_mark_destroy_workfn
[  243.686758] Call Trace:
[  243.686762] [c0000000166736e0] [c00000004fd91000] 0xc00000004fd91000 (unreliable)
[  243.686775] [c0000000166738d0] [c00000001001dec0] __switch_to+0x130/0x220
[  243.686788] [c000000016673930] [c000000010f607b8] __schedule+0x1f8/0x
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53671?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53671?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53671 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53671 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-2023-53671 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53671 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-2023-53671 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-2023-53671/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53671/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53671
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53671
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53671

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53671/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
