CVE-2023-54006 af_unix: Fix data-race around unix_tot_inflight.
A data race in the Linux kernel's AF_UNIX socket implementation can lead to system instability or denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2023-54006?
CVE-2023-54006 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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:
af_unix: Fix data-race around unix_tot_inflight.
unix_tot_inflight is changed under spin_lock(unix_gc_lock), but unix_release_sock() reads it locklessly.
Let's use READ_ONCE() for unix_tot_inflight.
Note that the writer side was marked by commit 9d6d7f1cb67c ("af_unix: annote lockless accesses to unix_tot_inflight & gc_in_progress")
BUG: KCSAN: data-race in unix_inflight / unix_release_sock
write (marked) to 0xffffffff871852b8 of 4 bytes by task 123 on cpu 1: unix_inflight+0x130/0x180 net/unix/scm.c:64 unix_attach_fds+0x137/0x1b0 net/unix/scm.c:123 unix_scm_to_skb net/unix/af_unix.c:1832 [inline] unix_dgram_sendmsg+0x46a/0x14f0 net/unix/af_unix.c:1955 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:724 [inline] sock_sendmsg+0x148/0x160 net/socket.c:747 ____sys_sendmsg+0x4e4/0x610 net/socket.c:2493 ___sys_sendmsg+0xc6/0x140 net/socket.c:2547 __sys_sendmsg+0x94/0x140 net/socket.c:2576 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2585 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2583 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x45/0x50 net/socket.c:2583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
read to 0xffffffff871852b8 of 4 bytes by task 4891 on cpu 0: unix_release_sock+0x608/0x910 net/unix/af_unix.c:671 unix_release+0x59/0x80 net/unix/af_unix.c:1058 __sock_release+0x7d/0x170 net/socket.c:653 sock_close+0x19/0x30 net/socket.c:1385 __fput+0x179/0x5e0 fs/file_table.c:321 ____fput+0x15/0x20 fs/file_table.c:349 task_work_run+0x116/0x1a0 kernel/task_work.c:179 resume_user_mode_work include/linux/resume_user_mode.h:49 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_loop kernel/entry/common.c:171 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x174/0x180 kernel/entry/common.c:204 __syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work kernel/entry/common.c:286 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x1a/0x30 kernel/entry/common.c:297 do_syscall_64+0x4b/0x90 arch/x86/entry/common.c:86 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
value changed: 0x00000000 -> 0x00000001
Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: CPU: 0 PID: 4891 Comm: systemd-coredum Not tainted 6.4.0-rc5-01219-gfa0e21fa4443 #5 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54006?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54006?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54006 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54006 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54006, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54006, GHSA-c5hc-c94v-v6gh, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54006.