Linux Kernel up to 5.4.228/5.10.163/5.15.88/6.1.6 Performance Counters in_atomic state issue

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as problematic has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.228/5.10.163/5.15.88/6.1.6. This impacts the function in_atomic of the component Performance Counters. The manipulation results in state issue. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2023-53031. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.228/5.10.163/5.15.88/6.1.6. It has been classified as problematic. Affected is the function in_atomic of the component Performance Counters. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a state issue vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-371. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/imc-pmu: Fix use of mutex in IRQs disabled section Current imc-pmu code triggers a WARNING with CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP and CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING enabled, while running a thread_imc event. Command to trigger the warning: # perf stat -e thread_imc/CPM_CS_FROM_L4_MEM_X_DPTEG/ sleep 5 Performance counter stats for 'sleep 5': 0 thread_imc/CPM_CS_FROM_L4_MEM_X_DPTEG/ 5.002117947 seconds time elapsed 0.000131000 seconds user 0.001063000 seconds sys Below is snippet of the warning in dmesg: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:580 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, pid: 2869, name: perf-exec preempt_count: 2, expected: 0 4 locks held by perf-exec/2869: #0: c00000004325c540 (&sig->cred_guard_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: bprm_execve+0x64/0xa90 #1: c00000004325c5d8 (&sig->exec_update_lock){++++}-{3:3}, at: begin_new_exec+0x460/0xef0 #2: c0000003fa99d4e0 (&cpuctx_lock){-...}-{2:2}, at: perf_event_exec+0x290/0x510 #3: c000000017ab8418 (&ctx->lock){....}-{2:2}, at: perf_event_exec+0x29c/0x510 irq event stamp: 4806 hardirqs last enabled at (4805): [<c000000000f65b94>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x94/0xd0 hardirqs last disabled at (4806): [<c0000000003fae44>] perf_event_exec+0x394/0x510 softirqs last enabled at (0): [<c00000000013c404>] copy_process+0xc34/0x1ff0 softirqs last disabled at (0): [<0000000000000000>] 0x0 CPU: 36 PID: 2869 Comm: perf-exec Not tainted 6.2.0-rc2-00011-g1247637727f2 #61 Hardware name: 8375-42A POWER9 0x4e1202 opal:v7.0-16-g9b85f7d961 PowerNV Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x98/0xe0 (unreliable) __might_resched+0x2f8/0x310 __mutex_lock+0x6c/0x13f0 thread_imc_event_add+0xf4/0x1b0 event_sched_in+0xe0/0x210 merge_sched_in+0x1f0/0x600 visit_groups_merge.isra.92.constprop.166+0x2bc/0x6c0 ctx_flexible_sched_in+0xcc/0x140 ctx_sched_in+0x20c/0x2a0 ctx_resched+0x104/0x1c0 perf_event_exec+0x340/0x510 begin_new_exec+0x730/0xef0 load_elf_binary+0x3f8/0x1e10 ... do not call blocking ops when !TASK_RUNNING; state=2001 set at [<00000000fd63e7cf>] do_nanosleep+0x60/0x1a0 WARNING: CPU: 36 PID: 2869 at kernel/sched/core.c:9912 __might_sleep+0x9c/0xb0 CPU: 36 PID: 2869 Comm: sleep Tainted: G W 6.2.0-rc2-00011-g1247637727f2 #61 Hardware name: 8375-42A POWER9 0x4e1202 opal:v7.0-16-g9b85f7d961 PowerNV NIP: c000000000194a1c LR: c000000000194a18 CTR: c000000000a78670 REGS: c00000004d2134e0 TRAP: 0700 Tainted: G W (6.2.0-rc2-00011-g1247637727f2) MSR: 9000000000021033 <SF,HV,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 48002824 XER: 00000000 CFAR: c00000000013fb64 IRQMASK: 1 The above warning triggered because the current imc-pmu code uses mutex lock in interrupt disabled sections. The function mutex_lock() internally calls __might_resched(), which will check if IRQs are disabled and in case IRQs are disabled, it will trigger the warning. Fix the issue by changing the mutex lock to spinlock. [mpe: Fix comments, trim oops in change log, add reported-by tags]

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53031 since 03/27/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 12/07/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 246671 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53031), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.4.229, 5.10.164, 5.15.89 or 6.1.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch d0c6d2a31026102d4738b47a610bed4401b9834f/8cbeb60320ac45a8240b561c8ef466b86c34dedc/a90d339f1f66be4a946769b565668e2bd0686dfa/424bcb570cb320d1d15238cd4c933522b90f78fa/76d588dddc459fefa1da96e0a081a397c5c8e216 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (246671) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0649). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.4.228
• 5.10.163
• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7
• 5.15.8
• 5.15.9
• 5.15.10
• 5.15.11
• 5.15.12
• 5.15.13
• 5.15.14
• 5.15.15
• 5.15.16
• 5.15.17
• 5.15.18
• 5.15.19
• 5.15.20
• 5.15.21
• 5.15.22
• 5.15.23
• 5.15.24
• 5.15.25
• 5.15.26
• 5.15.27
• 5.15.28
• 5.15.29
• 5.15.30
• 5.15.31
• 5.15.32
• 5.15.33
• 5.15.34
• 5.15.35
• 5.15.36
• 5.15.37
• 5.15.38
• 5.15.39
• 5.15.40
• 5.15.41
• 5.15.42
• 5.15.43
• 5.15.44
• 5.15.45
• 5.15.46
• 5.15.47
• 5.15.48
• 5.15.49
• 5.15.50
• 5.15.51
• 5.15.52
• 5.15.53
• 5.15.54
• 5.15.55
• 5.15.56
• 5.15.57
• 5.15.58
• 5.15.59
• 5.15.60
• 5.15.61
• 5.15.62
• 5.15.63
• 5.15.64
• 5.15.65
• 5.15.66
• 5.15.67
• 5.15.68
• 5.15.69
• 5.15.70
• 5.15.71
• 5.15.72
• 5.15.73
• 5.15.74
• 5.15.75
• 5.15.76
• 5.15.77
• 5.15.78
• 5.15.79
• 5.15.80
• 5.15.81
• 5.15.82
• 5.15.83
• 5.15.84
• 5.15.85
• 5.15.86
• 5.15.87
• 5.15.88
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Discussion