CVE-2023-52774

What it actually does

Race condition in dasd_profile_start() permits concurrent modification of the DASD device queue, resulting in invalid pointer dereferences and potential kernel panic under high parallel I/O workloads with alias devices enabled.

Why it matters to the business

Systems running affected Linux kernels on s390 hardware may experience unexpected crashes during intensive storage I/O, leading to downtime and operational disruption; low exploitability and absence from known campaigns reduce immediate risk.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with local access or the ability to induce high-volume parallel I/O against DASD devices triggers the unprotected queue traversal in dasd_profile_start(), causing the queue state to change mid-access and resulting in a kernel panic; no remote code execution path is known.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to the fixed commit ebdc569a07a3e8dbe66b4184922ad6f88ac0b96f or later stable release containing the device lock acquisition before queue access in dasd_profile_start().

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm kernel source contains the device lock around queue counting in dasd_profile_start() and that the profile data pointer check occurs prior to locking; verify running kernel version includes the referenced commit.

Typical attack path

1. Obtain local execution or influence I/O workload on s390 DASD devices
2. Generate concurrent requests that modify the device queue while dasd_profile_start() is active
3. Trigger invalid pointer access leading to kernel panic

How to detect it

Review kernel logs for oops/panic messages referencing dasd_profile_start or device queue access; correlate with high I/O activity on s390 DASD devices; no specific post-exploitation artifacts are known.

What your security team should do

• Prioritize patching s390 Linux systems with DASD storage and alias devices enabled
• Monitor for kernel oops or panic events correlated with high I/O on DASD devices
• Apply the fix during next maintenance window given low EPSS and no KEV listing