{"id":"CVE-2023-53815","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"posix-timers: Prevent RT livelock in itimer_delete()","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nposix-timers: Prevent RT livelock in itimer_delete()\n\nitimer_delete() has a retry loop when the timer is concurrently expired. On\nnon-RT kernels this just spin-waits until the timer callback has completed,\nexcept for posix CPU timers which have HAVE_POSIX_CPU_TIMERS_TASK_WORK\nenabled.\n\nIn that case and on RT kernels the existing task could live lock when\npreempting the task which does the timer delivery.\n\nReplace spin_unlock() with an invocation of timer_wait_running() to handle\nit the same way as the other retry loops in the posix timer code.","publishedAt":"2025-12-09T00:01:12.832Z","updatedAt":"2026-05-11T19:52:03.416Z","severity":null,"assigner":"Linux","products":["Linux Linux"],"affected":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"f1be1ed32daa053484222f7f9beb2b16c624dffd","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"0670c4c567b27bd8f999a943028f4fe60d1a1106","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"e7aff15ba29ba4b3052786b1636fa5c4aa39e179","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"f9bd298e3e4d3fd6e19f017789a42d0f332cd555","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"c1968bb8a28625cc95d2ad3ca872ab98c9c36d59","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"9d9e522010eb5685d8b53e8a24320653d9d4cbbf","versionType":"git"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/time/posix-timers.c"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"5.4","status":"affected"},{"version":"0","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"5.4","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.10.188","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.10.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.15.121","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.15.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.1.39","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.1.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.3.13","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.3.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.4.4","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.4.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.5","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"*","versionType":"original_commit_for_fix"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/time/posix-timers.c"]}],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1be1ed32daa053484222f7f9beb2b16c624dffd","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0670c4c567b27bd8f999a943028f4fe60d1a1106","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7aff15ba29ba4b3052786b1636fa5c4aa39e179","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9bd298e3e4d3fd6e19f017789a42d0f332cd555","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1968bb8a28625cc95d2ad3ca872ab98c9c36d59","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9d9e522010eb5685d8b53e8a24320653d9d4cbbf"],"weaknesses":[],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:06:33.064Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53815.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2023-53815","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2025-12-09T00:01:12.832Z","dateUpdated":"2026-05-11T19:52:03.416Z","assignerShortName":"Linux","assignerOrgId":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","dateReserved":"2025-12-08T23:58:35.277Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"title":"posix-timers: Prevent RT livelock in itimer_delete()","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nposix-timers: Prevent RT livelock in itimer_delete()\n\nitimer_delete() has a retry loop when the timer is concurrently expired. On\nnon-RT kernels this just spin-waits until the timer callback has completed,\nexcept for posix CPU timers which have HAVE_POSIX_CPU_TIMERS_TASK_WORK\nenabled.\n\nIn that case and on RT kernels the existing task could live lock when\npreempting the task which does the timer delivery.\n\nReplace spin_unlock() with an invocation of timer_wait_running() to handle\nit the same way as the other retry loops in the posix timer code."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"f1be1ed32daa053484222f7f9beb2b16c624dffd","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"0670c4c567b27bd8f999a943028f4fe60d1a1106","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"e7aff15ba29ba4b3052786b1636fa5c4aa39e179","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"f9bd298e3e4d3fd6e19f017789a42d0f332cd555","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"c1968bb8a28625cc95d2ad3ca872ab98c9c36d59","versionType":"git"},{"version":"ec8f954a40da8cd3d159713b608e901f0cd909a9","status":"affected","lessThan":"9d9e522010eb5685d8b53e8a24320653d9d4cbbf","versionType":"git"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/time/posix-timers.c"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"5.4","status":"affected"},{"version":"0","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"5.4","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.10.188","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.10.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"5.15.121","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"5.15.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.1.39","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.1.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.3.13","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.3.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.4.4","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.4.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.5","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"*","versionType":"original_commit_for_fix"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["kernel/time/posix-timers.c"]}],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1be1ed32daa053484222f7f9beb2b16c624dffd"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0670c4c567b27bd8f999a943028f4fe60d1a1106"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7aff15ba29ba4b3052786b1636fa5c4aa39e179"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9bd298e3e4d3fd6e19f017789a42d0f332cd555"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1968bb8a28625cc95d2ad3ca872ab98c9c36d59"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9d9e522010eb5685d8b53e8a24320653d9d4cbbf"}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"Linux","orgId":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","dateUpdated":"2026-05-11T19:52:03.416Z"},"cpeApplicability":[{"nodes":[{"operator":"OR","negate":false,"cpeMatch":[{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"5.10.188"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"5.15.121"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"6.1.39"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"6.3.13"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"6.4.4"},{"vulnerable":true,"criteria":"cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","versionStartIncluding":"5.4","versionEndExcluding":"6.5"}]}]}],"x_generator":{"engine":"bippy-1.2.0"}}}}}