CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2023-53998

UNSCORED

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data The virtio rng device kicks off a new entropy request whenever the data available reaches zero. When a new request occurs at the end of a read operation, that is, when the result of that request is only needed by the next reader, then there is a race between the writing of the new data and the next reader. This is because there is no synchronisation whatsoever between the writer and the reader. Fix this by writing data_avail with smp_store_release and reading it with smp_load_acquire when we first enter read. The subsequent reads are safe because they're either protected by the first load acquire, or by the completion mechanism. Also remove the redundant zeroing of data_idx in random_recv_done (data_idx must already be zero at this point) and data_avail in request_entropy (ditto).

How to fix

Remediation Available
linuxDebian
Fixed in:5.10.191-1CVE-2023-53998
Fixed in:6.1.52-1CVE-2023-53998
Fixed in:6.4.4-1CVE-2023-53998
Fixed in:6.4.4-1CVE-2023-53998

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3.1 Vector

No CVSS vector data available.

Exploit Intelligence

0.18%probability of exploitation in 30 days
7thpercentile

Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 7% of all known CVEs.

References

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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-12-29.