🛡️ CVE-2023-53178 on Ubuntu — linux
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: fix zswap writeback race condition The zswap writeback mechanism can cause a race condition resulting in memory corruption, where a swapped out page gets swapped in with data that was written to a different page. The race unfolds like this: 1. a page with data A and swap offset X is stored in zswap 2. page A is removed off the LRU by zpool driver for writeback in zswap-shrink work, data for A is mapped by zpool driver 3. user space program faults and invalidates page entry A, offset X is considered free 4. kswapd stores page B at offset X in zswap (zswap could also be full, if so, page B would then be IOed to X, then skip step 5.) 5. entry A is replaced by B in tree->rbroot, this doesn't affect the local reference held by zswap-shrink work 6. zswap-shrink work writes back A at X, and frees zswap entry A 7. swapin of slot X brings A in memory instead of B The fix: Once the swap page cache has been allocated (case ZSWAP_SWAPCACHE_NEW), zswap-shrink work just checks that the local zswap_entry reference is still the same as the one in the tree. If it's not the same it means that it's either been invalidated or replaced, in both cases the writeback is aborted because the local entry contains stale data. Reproducer: I originally found this by running stress overnight to validate my work on the zswap writeback mechanism, it manifested after hours on my test machine. The key to make it happen is having zswap writebacks, so whatever setup pumps /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/written_back_pages should do the trick. In order to reproduce this faster on a vm, I setup a system with ~100M of available memory and a 500M swap file, then running stress --vm 1 --vm-bytes 300000000 --vm-stride 4000 makes it happen in matter of tens of minutes. One can speed things up even more by swinging /sys/module/zswap/parameters/max_pool_percent up and down between, say, 20 and 1; this makes it reproduce in tens of seconds. It's crucial to set --vm-stride to something other than 4096 otherwise stress won't realize that memory has been corrupted because all pages would have the same data.
Distribution advisory
This page covers CVE-2023-53178 as tracked by Ubuntu, for the package linux. No fixed version has been recorded for this distribution yet.
How this vulnerability can be exploited
This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.
CVSS metrics in full
The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Attack vector: Local — a local account, shell or session on the host is needed.
- Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
- Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
- User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
- Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
- Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
- Integrity impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
- Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
Affected software
UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53178 is recorded against 124 packages.
- linux
- linux-allwinner-5.19
- linux-aws
- linux-aws-5.0
- linux-aws-5.11
- linux-aws-5.13
- linux-aws-5.15
- linux-aws-5.19
- linux-aws-5.3
- linux-aws-5.4
- linux-aws-5.8
- linux-aws-6.2
- linux-aws-6.5
- linux-aws-fips
- linux-aws-hwe
- linux-azure
- linux-azure-4.15
- linux-azure-5.11
- linux-azure-5.13
- linux-azure-5.15
- linux-azure-5.19
- linux-azure-5.3
- linux-azure-5.4
- linux-azure-5.8
Show the remaining 100 packages
- linux-azure-6.11
- linux-azure-6.2
- linux-azure-6.5
- linux-azure-edge
- linux-azure-fde
- linux-azure-fde-5.15
- linux-azure-fde-5.19
- linux-azure-fde-6.2
- linux-azure-fips
- linux-bluefield
- linux-fips
- linux-gcp
- linux-gcp-4.15
- linux-gcp-5.11
- linux-gcp-5.13
- linux-gcp-5.15
- linux-gcp-5.19
- linux-gcp-5.3
- linux-gcp-5.4
- linux-gcp-5.8
- linux-gcp-6.11
- linux-gcp-6.2
- linux-gcp-6.5
- linux-gcp-fips
- linux-gke
- linux-gke-4.15
- linux-gke-5.15
- linux-gke-5.4
- linux-gkeop
- linux-gkeop-5.15
- linux-gkeop-5.4
- linux-hwe
- linux-hwe-5.11
- linux-hwe-5.13
- linux-hwe-5.15
- linux-hwe-5.19
- linux-hwe-5.4
- linux-hwe-5.8
- linux-hwe-6.11
- linux-hwe-6.2
- linux-hwe-6.5
- linux-hwe-edge
- linux-ibm
- linux-ibm-5.15
- linux-ibm-5.4
- linux-intel
- linux-intel-5.13
- linux-intel-iot-realtime
- linux-intel-iotg
- linux-intel-iotg-5.15
- linux-iot
- linux-kvm
- linux-lowlatency
- linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15
- linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19
- linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11
- linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2
- linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5
- linux-lts-xenial
- linux-nvidia
- linux-nvidia-6.2
- linux-nvidia-6.5
- linux-nvidia-tegra
- linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15
- linux-nvidia-tegra-igx
- linux-oem
- linux-oem-5.10
- linux-oem-5.13
- linux-oem-5.14
- linux-oem-5.17
- linux-oem-5.6
- linux-oem-6.0
- linux-oem-6.1
- linux-oem-6.11
- linux-oem-6.5
- linux-oem-6.8
- linux-oracle
- linux-oracle-5.0
- linux-oracle-5.11
- linux-oracle-5.13
- linux-oracle-5.15
- linux-oracle-5.3
- linux-oracle-5.4
- linux-oracle-5.8
- linux-oracle-6.5
- linux-raspi
- linux-raspi-5.4
- linux-raspi-realtime
- linux-raspi2
- linux-realtime
- linux-riscv
- linux-riscv-5.11
- linux-riscv-5.15
- linux-riscv-5.19
- linux-riscv-5.8
- linux-riscv-6.5
- linux-starfive-5.19
- linux-starfive-6.2
- linux-starfive-6.5
- linux-xilinx-zynqmp
Timeline and source
Published on 15 September 2025 and last revised on 19 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.
References
ubuntu.com (Report)
www.cve.org (Report)
git.kernel.org (Report)
git.kernel.org (Report)
git.kernel.org (Report)
git.kernel.org (Report)
Other advisories for this package
linux has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:
- DEBIAN-CVE-2022-4994 (published 30 Jul 2026)
- CVE-2026-35233 (4.4 Medium, published 1 May 2026)
- CVE-2026-21996 (3.3 Low, published 1 May 2026)
- CVE-2026-21991 (5.5 Medium, published 16 Mar 2026)
- CGA-w6xv-3fg4-grm5 (published 29 Jan 2026)
- CGA-mcwh-q4vm-9f29 (published 29 Jan 2026)
- CGA-434c-h783-9v24 (published 7 Jan 2026)
- CGA-fmgm-3rrr-58xf (published 7 Jan 2026)
CVE-2023-53178 on other distributions
Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:
Details
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| linux | — | — |
| linux-allwinner-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-aws | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.0 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.3 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-aws-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-aws-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-aws-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-aws-fips | — | — |
| linux-aws-hwe | — | — |
| linux-azure | — | — |
| linux-azure-4.15 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.3 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-azure-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-azure-6.11 | — | — |
| linux-azure-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-azure-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-azure-edge | — | — |
| linux-azure-fde | — | — |
| linux-azure-fde-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-azure-fde-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-azure-fde-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-azure-fips | — | — |
| linux-bluefield | — | — |
| linux-fips | — | — |
| linux-gcp | — | — |
| linux-gcp-4.15 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.3 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-6.11 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-gcp-fips | — | — |
| linux-gke | — | — |
| linux-gke-4.15 | — | — |
| linux-gke-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-gke-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-gkeop | — | — |
| linux-gkeop-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-gkeop-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-hwe | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-6.11 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-hwe-edge | — | — |
| linux-ibm | — | — |
| linux-ibm-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-ibm-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-intel | — | — |
| linux-intel-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-intel-iot-realtime | — | — |
| linux-intel-iotg | — | — |
| linux-intel-iotg-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-iot | — | — |
| linux-kvm | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-lts-xenial | — | — |
| linux-nvidia | — | — |
| linux-nvidia-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-nvidia-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-nvidia-tegra | — | — |
| linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-nvidia-tegra-igx | — | — |
| linux-oem | — | — |
| linux-oem-5.10 | — | — |
| linux-oem-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-oem-5.14 | — | — |
| linux-oem-5.17 | — | — |
| linux-oem-5.6 | — | — |
| linux-oem-6.0 | — | — |
| linux-oem-6.1 | — | — |
| linux-oem-6.11 | — | — |
| linux-oem-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-oem-6.8 | — | — |
| linux-oracle | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.0 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.13 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.3 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-oracle-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-raspi | — | — |
| linux-raspi-5.4 | — | — |
| linux-raspi-realtime | — | — |
| linux-raspi2 | — | — |
| linux-realtime | — | — |
| linux-riscv | — | — |
| linux-riscv-5.11 | — | — |
| linux-riscv-5.15 | — | — |
| linux-riscv-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-riscv-5.8 | — | — |
| linux-riscv-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-starfive-5.19 | — | — |
| linux-starfive-6.2 | — | — |
| linux-starfive-6.5 | — | — |
| linux-xilinx-zynqmp | — | — |
References
Similar Threats
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