mm: fix zswap writeback race condition

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2023-53178
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerLinux
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2025-09-15 14:15:39 UTC
Updated2026-08-04 10:18:56 UTC
DescriptionIn 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.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 4.7 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-362

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary4.7MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67Secondary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Linux Linux affected 2b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce 2cab13f500a6333bd2b853783ac76be9e4956f8a git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 2b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce ba700ea13bf0105a4773c654f7d3bef8adb64ab2 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 2b2811178e85553405b86e3fe78357b9b95889ce 04fc7816089c5a32c29a04ec94b998e219dfb946 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 3.11 Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 3.11 semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.1.30 6.1.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.3.4 6.3.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.4 * original_commit_for_fix Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
git.kernel.org/stable/c/ba700ea13bf0105a4773c654f7d3bef8adb64ab2 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/2cab13f500a6333bd2b853783ac76be9e4956f8a 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/04fc7816089c5a32c29a04ec94b998e219dfb946 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
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