Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7 ACPI semaphore.c acpi_get_pptt stack-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function acpi_get_pptt of the file kernel/locking/semaphore.c of the component ACPI. This manipulation causes stack-based overflow. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53070. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.20/6.2.7 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function acpi_get_pptt of the file kernel/locking/semaphore.c of the component ACPI. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a stack-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-121. A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ACPI: PPTT: Fix to avoid sleep in the atomic context when PPTT is absent Commit 0c80f9e165f8 ("ACPI: PPTT: Leave the table mapped for the runtime usage") enabled to map PPTT once on the first invocation of acpi_get_pptt() and never unmapped the same allowing it to be used at runtime with out the hassle of mapping and unmapping the table. This was needed to fetch LLC information from the PPTT in the cpuhotplug path which is executed in the atomic context as the acpi_get_table() might sleep waiting for a mutex. However it missed to handle the case when there is no PPTT on the system which results in acpi_get_pptt() being called from all the secondary CPUs attempting to fetch the LLC information in the atomic context without knowing the absence of PPTT resulting in the splat like below: | BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/semaphore.c:164 | in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, pid: 0, name: swapper/1 | preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 | RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 | no locks held by swapper/1/0. | irq event stamp: 0 | hardirqs last enabled at (0): 0x0 | hardirqs last disabled at (0): copy_process+0x61c/0x1b40 | softirqs last enabled at (0): copy_process+0x61c/0x1b40 | softirqs last disabled at (0): 0x0 | CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 6.3.0-rc1 #1 | Call trace: | dump_backtrace+0xac/0x138 | show_stack+0x30/0x48 | dump_stack_lvl+0x60/0xb0 | dump_stack+0x18/0x28 | __might_resched+0x160/0x270 | __might_sleep+0x58/0xb0 | down_timeout+0x34/0x98 | acpi_os_wait_semaphore+0x7c/0xc0 | acpi_ut_acquire_mutex+0x58/0x108 | acpi_get_table+0x40/0xe8 | acpi_get_pptt+0x48/0xa0 | acpi_get_cache_info+0x38/0x140 | init_cache_level+0xf4/0x118 | detect_cache_attributes+0x2e4/0x640 | update_siblings_masks+0x3c/0x330 | store_cpu_topology+0x88/0xf0 | secondary_start_kernel+0xd0/0x168 | __secondary_switched+0xb8/0xc0 Update acpi_get_pptt() to consider the fact that PPTT is once checked and is not available on the system and return NULL avoiding any attempts to fetch PPTT and thereby avoiding any possible sleep waiting for a mutex in the atomic context.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-53070 since 05/02/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 11/12/2025).

Upgrading to version 6.1.21 or 6.2.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 1318a07706bb2f8c65f88f39a16c2b5260bcdcd4/e0c1106d51b9abc8eae03c5522b20649b6a55f6e/91d7b60a65d9f71230ea09b86d2058a884a3c2af 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.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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