linux-cve-announce - CVE-2023-54045: audit: fix possible soft lockup in __audit_inode

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Message-ID: <2025122423-CVE-2023-54045-e0ff@gregkh>
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:26:38 +0100
From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To: linux-cve-announce@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>
Subject: CVE-2023-54045: audit: fix possible soft lockup in __audit_inode_child()

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

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

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

audit: fix possible soft lockup in __audit_inode_child()

Tracefs or debugfs maybe cause hundreds to thousands of PATH records,
too many PATH records maybe cause soft lockup.

For example:
  1. CONFIG_KASAN=y && CONFIG_PREEMPTION=n
  2. auditctl -a exit,always -S open -k key
  3. sysctl -w kernel.watchdog_thresh=5
  4. mkdir /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/instances/test

There may be a soft lockup as follows:
  watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#45 stuck for 7s! [mkdir:15498]
  Kernel panic - not syncing: softlockup: hung tasks
  Call trace:
   dump_backtrace+0x0/0x30c
   show_stack+0x20/0x30
   dump_stack+0x11c/0x174
   panic+0x27c/0x494
   watchdog_timer_fn+0x2bc/0x390
   __run_hrtimer+0x148/0x4fc
   __hrtimer_run_queues+0x154/0x210
   hrtimer_interrupt+0x2c4/0x760
   arch_timer_handler_phys+0x48/0x60
   handle_percpu_devid_irq+0xe0/0x340
   __handle_domain_irq+0xbc/0x130
   gic_handle_irq+0x78/0x460
   el1_irq+0xb8/0x140
   __audit_inode_child+0x240/0x7bc
   tracefs_create_file+0x1b8/0x2a0
   trace_create_file+0x18/0x50
   event_create_dir+0x204/0x30c
   __trace_add_new_event+0xac/0x100
   event_trace_add_tracer+0xa0/0x130
   trace_array_create_dir+0x60/0x140
   trace_array_create+0x1e0/0x370
   instance_mkdir+0x90/0xd0
   tracefs_syscall_mkdir+0x68/0xa0
   vfs_mkdir+0x21c/0x34c
   do_mkdirat+0x1b4/0x1d4
   __arm64_sys_mkdirat+0x4c/0x60
   el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xa8/0x240
   do_el0_svc+0x8c/0xc0
   el0_svc+0x20/0x30
   el0_sync_handler+0xb0/0xb4
   el0_sync+0x160/0x180

Therefore, we add cond_resched() to __audit_inode_child() to fix it.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2023-54045 to this issue.


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

	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 4.14.326 with commit d061e2bfc20f2914656385816e0d20566213c54c
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 4.19.295 with commit 1640c7bd4eddec6c72f3a99cbb74e333a2ce9f5d
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 5.4.257 with commit f6364fa751d7486502c777f124a14d4d543fc5eb
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 5.10.195 with commit 98ef243d5900d75a64539a2165745bffbb155d43
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 5.15.132 with commit 0152e7758cc4e9f8bfba8dbea4438d8e488d6c08
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 6.1.53 with commit 9ca08adb75fb40a8f742c371927ee73f9dc753bf
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 6.4.16 with commit 8a40b491372966ba5426e138a53460985565d5a6
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 6.5.3 with commit 8e76b944a7b9bddef190ffe2e29c9ae342ab91ed
	Issue introduced in 3.3 with commit 5195d8e217a78697152d64fc09a16e063a022465 and fixed in 6.6 with commit b59bc6e37237e37eadf50cd5de369e913f524463

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-2023-54045
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:
	kernel/auditsc.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/d061e2bfc20f2914656385816e0d20566213c54c
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1640c7bd4eddec6c72f3a99cbb74e333a2ce9f5d
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f6364fa751d7486502c777f124a14d4d543fc5eb
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/98ef243d5900d75a64539a2165745bffbb155d43
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0152e7758cc4e9f8bfba8dbea4438d8e488d6c08
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9ca08adb75fb40a8f742c371927ee73f9dc753bf
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8a40b491372966ba5426e138a53460985565d5a6
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8e76b944a7b9bddef190ffe2e29c9ae342ab91ed
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b59bc6e37237e37eadf50cd5de369e913f524463