linux-cve-announce - CVE-2023-53428: powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <2025091857-CVE-2023-53428-1448@gregkh>
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2025 18:04:19 +0200
From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To: linux-cve-announce@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>
Subject: CVE-2023-53428: powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>

Description
===========

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones

Powercap zones can be defined as arranged in a hierarchy of trees and when
registering a zone with powercap_register_zone(), the kernel powercap
subsystem expects this to happen starting from the root zones down to the
leaves; on the other side, de-registration by powercap_deregister_zone()
must begin from the leaf zones.

Available SCMI powercap zones are retrieved dynamically from the platform
at probe time and, while any defined hierarchy between the zones is
described properly in the zones descriptor, the platform returns the
availables zones with no particular well-defined order: as a consequence,
the trees possibly composing the hierarchy of zones have to be somehow
walked properly to register the retrieved zones from the root.

Currently the ARM SCMI Powercap driver walks the zones using a recursive
algorithm; this approach, even though correct and tested can lead to kernel
stack overflow when processing a returned hierarchy of zones composed by
particularly high trees.

Avoid possible kernel stack overflow by substituting the recursive approach
with an iterative one supported by a dynamically allocated stack-like data
structure.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2023-53428 to this issue.

Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Issue introduced in 6.2 with commit b55eef5226b71edf5422de246bc189da1fdc9000 and fixed in 6.4.16 with commit b427c23cebc5c926516f20304bf1acc05a33d147
	Issue introduced in 6.2 with commit b55eef5226b71edf5422de246bc189da1fdc9000 and fixed in 6.5.3 with commit 8022b64fb7daa6135d9f7b0e2f7b5b8e9e5179c9
	Issue introduced in 6.2 with commit b55eef5226b71edf5422de246bc189da1fdc9000 and fixed in 6.6 with commit 3e767d6850f867cc33ac16ca097350a1d2417982

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2023-53428
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.

Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	drivers/powercap/arm_scmi_powercap.c

Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b427c23cebc5c926516f20304bf1acc05a33d147
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8022b64fb7daa6135d9f7b0e2f7b5b8e9e5179c9
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e767d6850f867cc33ac16ca097350a1d2417982