CVE-2023-54271

NONECVSS 0.0
0.0
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • No confirmed exploitation signals yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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

blk-cgroup: Fix NULL deref caused by blkg_policy_data being installed before init

blk-iocost sometimes causes the following crash:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000e0 ... RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_lock+0x17/0x30 Code: be 01 02 00 00 e8 79 38 39 ff 31 d2 89 d0 5d c3 0f 1f 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 e5 65 ff 05 48 d0 34 7e b9 01 00 00 00 31 c0 0f b1 0f 75 02 5d c3 89 c6 e8 ea 04 00 00 5d c3 0f 1f 84 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffffc900023b3d40 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00000000000000e0 RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: ffffc900023b3d20 RSI: ffffc900023b3cf0 RDI: 00000000000000e0 RBP: ffffc900023b3d40 R08: ffffc900023b3c10 R09: 0000000000000003 R10: 0000000000000064 R11: 000000000000000a R12: ffff888102337000 R13: fffffffffffffff2 R14: ffff88810af408c8 R15: ffff8881070c3600 FS: 00007faaaf364fc0(0000) GS:ffff88842fdc0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00000000000000e0 CR3: 00000001097b1000 CR4: 0000000000350ea0 Call Trace: ioc_weight_write+0x13d/0x410 cgroup_file_write+0x7a/0x130 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0xf5/0x170 vfs_write+0x298/0x370 ksys_write+0x5f/0xb0 __x64_sys_write+0x1b/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0

This happens because iocg->ioc is NULL. The field is initialized by ioc_pd_init() and never cleared. The NULL deref is caused by blkcg_activate_policy() installing blkg_policy_data before initializing it.

blkcg_activate_policy() was doing the following:

  • Allocate pd's for all existing blkg's and install them in blkg->pd[].
  • Initialize all pd's.
  • Online all pd's.

blkcg_activate_policy() only grabs the queue_lock and may release and re-acquire the lock as allocation may need to sleep. ioc_weight_write() grabs blkcg->lock and iterates all its blkg's. The two can race and if ioc_weight_write() runs during #1 or between #1 and #2, it can encounter a pd which is not initialized yet, leading to crash.

The crash can be reproduced with the following script:

#!/bin/bash

echo +io > /sys/fs/cgroup/cgroup.subtree_control systemd-run --unit touch-sda --scope dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1 iflag=direct echo 100 > /sys/fs/cgroup/system.slice/io.weight bash -c "echo '8:0 enable=1' > /sys/fs/cgroup/io.cost.qos" & sleep .2 echo 100 > /sys/fs/cgroup/system.slice/io.weight

with the following patch applied:

> diff --git a/block/blk-cgroup.c b/block/blk-cgroup.c > index fc49be622e05..38d671d5e10c 100644 > --- a/block/blk-cgroup.c > +++ b/block/blk-cgroup.c > @@ -1553,6 +1553,12 @@ int blkcg_activate_policy(struct gendisk *disk, const struct blkcg_policy *pol) > pd->online = false; > } > > + if (system_state == SYSTEM_RUNNING) { > + spin_unlock_irq(&q->queue_lock); > + ssleep(1); > + spin_lock_irq(&q->queue_lock); > + } > + > /* all allocated, init in the same order */ > if (pol->pd_init_fn) > list_for_each_entry_reverse(blkg, &q->blkg_list, q_node)

I don't see a reason why all pd's should be allocated, initialized and onlined together. The only ordering requirement is that parent blkgs to be initialized and onlined before children, which is guaranteed from the walking order. Let's fix the bug by allocating, initializing and onlining pd for each blkg and holding blkcg->lock over initialization and onlining. This ensures that an installed blkg is always fully initialized and onlined removing the the race window.

CVSS v3
EG Score
0.0(none)
EG Risk
0
EG Risk 0/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. It is distinct from the 0–10 EG Score, which measures severity.

EPSS
6.5%
KEV
Not listed

Published

December 30, 2025

Last Modified

June 19, 2026

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-54271(2)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(3)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatkernel-0:5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_52024-11-12redhat
linuxKernel @ 6.4.16osv
linuxKernel @ 5.15.210osv

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 13× in last 7d / 46× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 115 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-23 02:30 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 23:16 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-22 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-19 14:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-15 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-15 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-09 21:45 UTCOSV refresh
  23. 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-08 15:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-07 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-07 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-06 02:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-06 02:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-05 02:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-01 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-29 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-21 07:31 UTCOSV refresh
  27. 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-15 17:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-14 23:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-13 22:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-12 23:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-11 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-10 22:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-10 13:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-07 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-07 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-04 13:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-01 21:11 UTCOSV refresh
  56. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-05-29 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-05-28 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-05-28 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-05-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-05-26 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-05-26 07:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-05-26 07:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-05-22 21:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-05-22 21:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-05-22 21:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-05-22 21:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-05-22 21:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-05-21 01:39 UTCEG score recompute

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2023-54271?
CVE-2023-54271 is a none vulnerability published on December 30, 2025. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: blk-cgroup: Fix NULL deref caused by blkgpolicydata being installed before init blk-iocost sometimes causes the following crash: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000e0 ... RIP: 0010:rawspin_lock+0x17/0x30…
When was CVE-2023-54271 disclosed?
CVE-2023-54271 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 30, 2025, with the most recent update on June 19, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-54271 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-54271 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 6.5% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
How do I remediate CVE-2023-54271?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-54271, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2023-54271

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2023-54271?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.