CVE-2023-53727 net/sched: fq_pie: avoid stalls in fq_pie_timer()
A local or remote attacker can cause a denial of service by triggering excessive CPU usage in the fq_pie scheduler timer.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-53727?
CVE-2023-53727 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 Oct 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: fq_pie: avoid stalls in fq_pie_timer()
When setting a high number of flows (limit being 65536), fq_pie_timer() is currently using too much time as syzbot reported.
Add logic to yield the cpu every 2048 flows (less than 150 usec on debug kernels). It should also help by not blocking qdisc fast paths for too long. Worst case (65536 flows) would need 31 jiffies for a complete scan.
Relevant extract from syzbot report:
rcu: INFO: rcu_preempt detected expedited stalls on CPUs/tasks: { 0-.... } 2663 jiffies s: 873 root: 0x1/. rcu: blocking rcu_node structures (internal RCU debug): Sending NMI from CPU 1 to CPUs 0: NMI backtrace for cpu 0 CPU: 0 PID: 5177 Comm: syz-executor273 Not tainted 6.5.0-syzkaller-00453-g727dbda16b83 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/26/2023 RIP: 0010:check_kcov_mode kernel/kcov.c:173 [inline] RIP: 0010:write_comp_data+0x21/0x90 kernel/kcov.c:236 Code: 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 65 8b 05 01 b2 7d 7e 49 89 f1 89 c6 49 89 d2 81 e6 00 01 00 00 49 89 f8 65 48 8b 14 25 80 b9 03 00 <a9> 00 01 ff 00 74 0e 85 f6 74 59 8b 82 04 16 00 00 85 c0 74 4f 8b RSP: 0018:ffffc90000007bb8 EFLAGS: 00000206 RAX: 0000000000000101 RBX: ffffc9000dc0d140 RCX: ffffffff885893b0 RDX: ffff88807c075940 RSI: 0000000000000100 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffc9000dc0d178 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000555555d54380(0000) GS:ffff8880b9800000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f6b442f6130 CR3: 000000006fe1c000 CR4: 00000000003506f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <NMI> </NMI> <IRQ> pie_calculate_probability+0x480/0x850 net/sched/sch_pie.c:415 fq_pie_timer+0x1da/0x4f0 net/sched/sch_fq_pie.c:387 call_timer_fn+0x1a0/0x580 kernel/time/timer.c:1700
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53727?
How do I fix CVE-2023-53727?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-53727 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53727 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53727, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53727, GHSA-r8m6-g352-25gf, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53727.