CVE-2023-54019

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

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: December 24, 2025 at 10:55 AM UTC
Updated: October 15, 2026 at 10:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

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()")

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

0e94682b73bfa6c44c98af7a26771c9c08c055d55.2
Vendor states this is fixed in 92cc0153324b6ae8577a39f5bf2cd83c9a34ea6a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in aff037078ecaecf34a7c2afab1341815f90fba5e (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in d124ab17024cc85a1079b7810a018a497ebc13da (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.42 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.4.7 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.5 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED

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