CVE-2023-54324 dm: fix a race condition in retrieve_deps
A race condition in the Linux kernel device-mapper multipath target allows local attackers to trigger memory corruption or use-after-free, potentially leading to privilege escalation.
- 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-2023-54324?
CVE-2023-54324 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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: fix a race condition in retrieve_deps
There's a race condition in the multipath target when retrieve_deps races with multipath_message calling dm_get_device and dm_put_device. retrieve_deps walks the list of open devices without holding any lock but multipath may add or remove devices to the list while it is running. The end result may be memory corruption or use-after-free memory access.
See this description of a UAF with multipath_message(): https://listman.redhat.com/archives/dm-devel/2022-October/052373.html
Fix this bug by introducing a new rw semaphore "devices_lock". We grab devices_lock for read in retrieve_deps and we grab it for write in dm_get_device and dm_put_device.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54324?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54324?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54324 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54324 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54324, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54324, GHSA-jp9m-rpm6-97j7, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-54324, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-54324, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54324.