CVE-2023-52638: can: j1939: prevent deadlock by changing j1939_socks_lock to rwlock
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2023-52638 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) Improper Locking vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7.9% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 15 · Related 10Timeline
- 03-04-2024PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 11-05-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: can: j1939: prevent deadlock by changing j1939_socks_lock to rwlock The following 3 locks would race against each other, causing the deadlock situation in the Syzbot bug report: - j1939_socks_lock - active_session_list_lock - sk_session_queue_lock A reasonable fix is to change j1939_socks_lock to an rwlock, since in the rare situations where a write lock is required for the linked list that j1939_socks_lock is protecting, the code does not attempt to acquire any more locks. This would break the circular lock dependency, where, for example, the current thread already locks j1939_socks_lock and attempts to acquire sk_session_queue_lock, and at the same time, another thread attempts to acquire j1939_socks_lock while holding sk_session_queue_lock. NOTE: This patch along does not fix the unregister_netdevice bug reported by Syzbot; instead, it solves a deadlock situation to prepare for one or more further patches to actually fix the Syzbot bug, which appears to be a reference counting problem within the j1939 codebase. [mkl: remove unrelated newline change]
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.18%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
8%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
No change 0.00 pp
From 0.18% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu117 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-106.116
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-1061.67
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ 5b9272e93f2efe3f6cda60cc2c26817b2ce49386, < 03358aba991668d3bb2c65b3c82aa32c36851170 | ≥ 5b9272e93f2efe3f6cda60cc2c26817b2ce49386, < aedda066d717a0b4335d7e0a00b2e3a61e40afcf | ≥ 5b9272e93f2efe3f6cda60cc2c26817b2ce49386, < 26dfe112ec2e95fe0099681f6aec33da13c2dd8e | ≥ 5b9272e93f2efe3f6cda60cc2c26817b2ce49386, < 559b6322f9480bff68cfa98d108991e945a4f284 | ≥ 5b9272e93f2efe3f6cda60cc2c26817b2ce49386, < 6cdedc18ba7b9dacc36466e27e3267d201948c8d | 5.15
- linux_kernel< 5.15.149 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.79 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.6.18 | ≥ 6.7, < 6.7.6 | 6.8:rc1 | 6.8:rc2 | 6.8:rc3 | 6.8:rc4
Debian1 product
- linux< 6.1.82-1 | < 6.7.7-1
3 vendors · 120 products
