CVE-2023-53281

Medium

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drivers: staging: rtl8723bs: Fix locking in _rtw_join_timeout_handler() Commit 041879b12ddb ("drivers: staging: rtl8192bs: Fix deadlock in rtw_joinbss_event_prehandle()") besides fixing the deadlock also modified _rtw_join_timeout_handler() to use spin_[un]lock_irq() instead of spin_[un]lock_bh(). _rtw_join_timeout_handler() calls rtw_do_join() which takes pmlmepriv->scanned_queue.lock using spin_[un]lock_bh(). This spin_unlock_bh() call re-enables softirqs which triggers an oops in kernel/softirq.c: __local_bh_enable_ip() when it calls lockdep_assert_irqs_enabled(): [ 244.506087] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 0 at kernel/softirq.c:376 __local_bh_enable_ip+0xa6/0x100 ... [ 244.509022] Call Trace: [ 244.509048] <IRQ> [ 244.509100] _rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x134/0x170 [r8723bs] [ 244.509468] ? __pfx__rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x10/0x10 [r8723bs] [ 244.509772] ? __pfx__rtw_join_timeout_handler+0x10/0x10 [r8723bs] [ 244.510076] call_timer_fn+0x95/0x2a0 [ 244.510200] __run_timers.part.0+0x1da/0x2d0 This oops is causd by the switch to spin_[un]lock_irq() which disables the IRQs for the entire duration of _rtw_join_timeout_handler(). Disabling the IRQs is not necessary since all code taking this lock runs from either user contexts or from softirqs, switch back to spin_[un]lock_bh() to fix this.

SeverityMedium
CVSS5.5
Exploit probability—
ProductLinux Kernel
PublishedSep 16, 2025
First seenSep 16, 2025
Weakness typeCWE-667CWE-667

How to fix

Update
  • linux linux_kernel5.15.111, 5.18, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2 or later

Affected products

ProductAffected versionsFixed in
linux linux_kernel5.15.47 ≤ v < 5.15.111, 5.17.15 ≤ v < 5.18, 5.18.4 ≤ v < 6.1.28, 6.2 ≤ v < 6.2.15, 6.3 ≤ v < 6.3.25.15.111, 5.18, 6.1.28, 6.2.15, 6.3.2

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