CVE-2023-54019

sched/psi: use kernfs polling functions for PSI trigger polling

State
Published
Severity
7.8 High
Published
Dec 24, 2025
Updated
Oct 15, 2026
Reserved
Dec 24, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/psi: use kernfs polling functions for PSI trigger polling

Destroying psi trigger in cgroup_file_release causes UAF issues when a cgroup is removed from under a polling process. This is happening because cgroup removal causes a call to cgroup_file_release while the actual file is still alive. Destroying the trigger at this point would also destroy its waitqueue head and if there is still a polling process on that file accessing the waitqueue, it will step on the freed pointer:

do_select vfs_poll do_rmdir cgroup_rmdir kernfs_drain_open_files cgroup_file_release cgroup_pressure_release psi_trigger_destroy wake_up_pollfree(&t->event_wait) // vfs_poll is unblocked synchronize_rcu kfree(t) poll_freewait -> UAF access to the trigger's waitqueue head

Patch [1] fixed this issue for epoll() case using wake_up_pollfree(), however the same issue exists for synchronous poll() case. The root cause of this issue is that the lifecycles of the psi trigger's waitqueue and of the file associated with the trigger are different. Fix this by using kernfs_generic_poll function when polling on cgroup-specific psi triggers. It internally uses kernfs_open_node->poll waitqueue head with its lifecycle tied to the file's lifecycle. This also renders the fix in [1] obsolete, so revert it.

[1] commit c2dbe32d5db5 ("sched/psi: Fix use-after-free in ep_remove_wait_queue()")

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.17.8 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 0e94682b73bfa6c44c98af7a26771c9c08c055d5 to before 92cc0153324b6ae8577a39f5bf2cd83c9a34ea6aAffected
  • 0e94682b73bfa6c44c98af7a26771c9c08c055d5 to before d124ab17024cc85a1079b7810a018a497ebc13daAffected
  • 0e94682b73bfa6c44c98af7a26771c9c08c055d5 to before aff037078ecaecf34a7c2afab1341815f90fba5eAffected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.2Affected
  • before 5.2Not affected
  • 6.1.42 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.4.7 through 6.4.*Not affected
  • 6.5 and laterNot affected

References

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