# CVE-2023-53860: dm: don't attempt to queue IO under RCU protection

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel bug by performing direct I/O on device-mapper devices, causing a system crash or denial of service.

- **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:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53860, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53860, GHSA-g5v9-7ppc-vg8p, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53860

## What is CVE-2023-53860?

CVE-2023-53860 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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:

dm: don't attempt to queue IO under RCU protection

dm looks up the table for IO based on the request type, with an
assumption that if the request is marked REQ_NOWAIT, it's fine to
attempt to submit that IO while under RCU read lock protection. This
is not OK, as REQ_NOWAIT just means that we should not be sleeping
waiting on other IO, it does not mean that we can't potentially
schedule.

A simple test case demonstrates this quite nicely:

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        struct iovec iov;
        int fd;

        fd = open("/dev/dm-0", O_RDONLY | O_DIRECT);
        posix_memalign(&iov.iov_base, 4096, 4096);
        iov.iov_len = 4096;
        preadv2(fd, &iov, 1, 0, RWF_NOWAIT);
        return 0;
}

which will instantly spew:

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at include/linux/sched/mm.h:306
in_atomic(): 0, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 5580, name: dm-nowait
preempt_count: 0, expected: 0
RCU nest depth: 1, expected: 0
INFO: lockdep is turned off.
CPU: 7 PID: 5580 Comm: dm-nowait Not tainted 6.6.0-rc1-g39956d2dcd81 #132
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x11d/0x1b0
 __might_resched+0x3c3/0x5e0
 ? preempt_count_sub+0x150/0x150
 mempool_alloc+0x1e2/0x390
 ? mempool_resize+0x7d0/0x7d0
 ? lock_sync+0x190/0x190
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 ? internal_get_user_pages_fast+0x868/0x2d40
 bio_alloc_bioset+0x417/0x8c0
 ? bvec_alloc+0x200/0x200
 ? internal_get_user_pages_fast+0xb8c/0x2d40
 bio_alloc_clone+0x53/0x100
 dm_submit_bio+0x27f/0x1a20
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 ? blk_try_enter_queue+0x1a0/0x4d0
 ? dm_dax_direct_access+0x260/0x260
 ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xb0
 ? blk_try_enter_queue+0x1cc/0x4d0
 __submit_bio+0x239/0x310
 ? __bio_queue_enter+0x700/0x700
 ? kvm_clock_get_cycles+0x40/0x60
 ? ktime_get+0x285/0x470
 submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x4d9/0xb80
 ? should_fail_request+0x80/0x80
 ? preempt_count_sub+0x150/0x150
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 ? __bio_add_page+0x143/0x2d0
 ? iov_iter_revert+0x27/0x360
 submit_bio_noacct+0x53e/0x1b30
 submit_bio_wait+0x10a/0x230
 ? submit_bio_wait_endio+0x40/0x40
 __blkdev_direct_IO_simple+0x4f8/0x780
 ? blkdev_bio_end_io+0x4c0/0x4c0
 ? stack_trace_save+0x90/0xc0
 ? __bio_clone+0x3c0/0x3c0
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 ? lock_sync+0x190/0x190
 ? atime_needs_update+0x3bf/0x7e0
 ? timestamp_truncate+0x21b/0x2d0
 ? inode_owner_or_capable+0x240/0x240
 blkdev_direct_IO.part.0+0x84a/0x1810
 ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xb0
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 ? blkdev_read_iter+0x40d/0x530
 ? reacquire_held_locks+0x4e0/0x4e0
 ? __blkdev_direct_IO_simple+0x780/0x780
 ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xb0
 ? __mark_inode_dirty+0x297/0xd50
 ? preempt_count_add+0x72/0x140
 blkdev_read_iter+0x2a4/0x530
 do_iter_readv_writev+0x2f2/0x3c0
 ? generic_copy_file_range+0x1d0/0x1d0
 ? fsnotify_perm.part.0+0x25d/0x630
 ? security_file_permission+0xd8/0x100
 do_iter_read+0x31b/0x880
 ? import_iovec+0x10b/0x140
 vfs_readv+0x12d/0x1a0
 ? vfs_iter_read+0xb0/0xb0
 ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xb0
 ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xb0
 ? lock_release+0x4b7/0x670
 do_preadv+0x1b3/0x260
 ? do_readv+0x370/0x370
 __x64_sys_preadv2+0xef/0x150
 do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
RIP: 0033:0x7f5af41ad806
Code: 41 54 41 89 fc 55 44 89 c5 53 48 89 cb 48 83 ec 18 80 3d e4 dd 0d 00 00 74 7a 45 89 c1 49 89 ca 45 31 c0 b8 47 01 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 0f 87 be 00 00 00 48 85 c0 79 4a 48 8b 0d da 55
RSP: 002b:00007ffd3145c7f0 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000147
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f5af41ad806
RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 00007ffd3145c850 RDI: 0000000000000003
RBP: 0000000000000008 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000008
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000003
R13: 00007ffd3145c850 R14: 000055f5f0431dd8 R15: 0000000000000001
 </TASK>

where in fact it is
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53860?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53860?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53860 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53860 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53860 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53860 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2023-53860 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53860/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53860/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53860
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53860
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53860

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53860/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.