CVE-2023-53401: mm: kmem: fix a NULL pointer dereference in obj_stock_flush_required()

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-53401 is a medium (CVSS 4.7) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 18-09-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: kmem: fix a NULL pointer dereference in obj_stock_flush_required() KCSAN found an issue in obj_stock_flush_required(): stock->cached_objcg can be reset between the check and dereference: ================================================================== BUG: KCSAN: data-race in drain_all_stock / drain_obj_stock write to 0xffff888237c2a2f8 of 8 bytes by task 19625 on cpu 0: drain_obj_stock+0x408/0x4e0 mm/memcontrol.c:3306 refill_obj_stock+0x9c/0x1e0 mm/memcontrol.c:3340 obj_cgroup_uncharge+0xe/0x10 mm/memcontrol.c:3408 memcg_slab_free_hook mm/slab.h:587 [inline] __cache_free mm/slab.c:3373 [inline] __do_kmem_cache_free mm/slab.c:3577 [inline] kmem_cache_free+0x105/0x280 mm/slab.c:3602 __d_free fs/dcache.c:298 [inline] dentry_free fs/dcache.c:375 [inline] __dentry_kill+0x422/0x4a0 fs/dcache.c:621 dentry_kill+0x8d/0x1e0 dput+0x118/0x1f0 fs/dcache.c:913 __fput+0x3bf/0x570 fs/file_table.c:329 ____fput+0x15/0x20 fs/file_table.c:349 task_work_run+0x123/0x160 kernel/task_work.c:179 resume_user_mode_work include/linux/resume_user_mode.h:49 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_loop+0xcf/0xe0 kernel/entry/common.c:171 exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x6a/0xa0 kernel/entry/common.c:203 __syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work kernel/entry/common.c:285 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x26/0x140 kernel/entry/common.c:296 do_syscall_64+0x4d/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:86 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd read to 0xffff888237c2a2f8 of 8 bytes by task 19632 on cpu 1: obj_stock_flush_required mm/memcontrol.c:3319 [inline] drain_all_stock+0x174/0x2a0 mm/memcontrol.c:2361 try_charge_memcg+0x6d0/0xd10 mm/memcontrol.c:2703 try_charge mm/memcontrol.c:2837 [inline] mem_cgroup_charge_skmem+0x51/0x140 mm/memcontrol.c:7290 sock_reserve_memory+0xb1/0x390 net/core/sock.c:1025 sk_setsockopt+0x800/0x1e70 net/core/sock.c:1525 udp_lib_setsockopt+0x99/0x6c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:2692 udp_setsockopt+0x73/0xa0 net/ipv4/udp.c:2817 sock_common_setsockopt+0x61/0x70 net/core/sock.c:3668 __sys_setsockopt+0x1c3/0x230 net/socket.c:2271 __do_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2282 [inline] __se_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2279 [inline] __x64_sys_setsockopt+0x66/0x80 net/socket.c:2279 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd value changed: 0xffff8881382d52c0 -> 0xffff888138893740 Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: CPU: 1 PID: 19632 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc2-syzkaller-00387-g534293368afa #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 03/02/2023 Fix it by using READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() for all accesses to stock->cached_objcg.

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.