Bug 2400797 (CVE-2023-53522) - CVE-2023-53522 kernel: cgroup,freezer: hold cpu_hotplug_lock before freezer_mutex
Summary: CVE-2023-53522 kernel: cgroup,freezer: hold cpu_hotplug_lock before freezer_m...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2023-53522
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-10-01 12:07 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-10-06 22:01 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Embargoed:


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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().


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