Bug 2400797 (CVE-2023-53522)

Summary: CVE-2023-53522 kernel: cgroup,freezer: hold cpu_hotplug_lock before freezer_mutex
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-10-01 12:07:56 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

cgroup,freezer: hold cpu_hotplug_lock before freezer_mutex

syzbot is reporting circular locking dependency between cpu_hotplug_lock
and freezer_mutex, for commit f5d39b020809 ("freezer,sched: Rewrite core
freezer logic") replaced atomic_inc() in freezer_apply_state() with
static_branch_inc() which holds cpu_hotplug_lock.

cpu_hotplug_lock => cgroup_threadgroup_rwsem => freezer_mutex

  cgroup_file_write() {
    cgroup_procs_write() {
      __cgroup_procs_write() {
        cgroup_procs_write_start() {
          cgroup_attach_lock() {
            cpus_read_lock() {
              percpu_down_read(&cpu_hotplug_lock);
            }
            percpu_down_write(&cgroup_threadgroup_rwsem);
          }
        }
        cgroup_attach_task() {
          cgroup_migrate() {
            cgroup_migrate_execute() {
              freezer_attach() {
                mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex);
                (...snipped...)
              }
            }
          }
        }
        (...snipped...)
      }
    }
  }

freezer_mutex => cpu_hotplug_lock

  cgroup_file_write() {
    freezer_write() {
      freezer_change_state() {
        mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex);
        freezer_apply_state() {
          static_branch_inc(&freezer_active) {
            static_key_slow_inc() {
              cpus_read_lock();
              static_key_slow_inc_cpuslocked();
              cpus_read_unlock();
            }
          }
        }
        mutex_unlock(&freezer_mutex);
      }
    }
  }

Swap locking order by moving cpus_read_lock() in freezer_apply_state()
to before mutex_lock(&freezer_mutex) in freezer_change_state().