CVE-2023-54246
NoneCVSS
—
EPSS
0.2%
Published
Dec 30, 2025
CISA due date
—
Cloudanix analysis
A Linux kernel testing option could make the system incorrectly report that a background task had frozen, creating confusing alerts.
- Exploitation
- Local Privilege
- Attacker needs
- Low Privilege
- Complexity
- Low
- Impact
- Denial Of Service
- Component
- OS kernel
- Class
- Denial of service
- Remediation
- Patch
- Effort
- Low
- Patch risk
- None
What it actually does
The rcuscale.holdoff parameter causes rcu_scale_writer() to sleep uninterruptibly for an extended period, exceeding hung_task_timeout_secs and triggering false positive hung-task warnings in the kernel scheduler.
Why it matters to the business
Test or development systems using rcuscale may generate spurious kernel warnings that consume analyst time and risk obscuring genuine task-hang events.
How an attack unfolds
An attacker with the ability to load the rcuscale module and set a holdoff value larger than the system's hung-task timeout can deliberately trigger repeated hung-task messages, degrading log quality and potentially masking real problems.
How to fix it
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing commit 55887adc76e19aec9763186e2c1d0a3481d20e96 or later; the rcuscale code now uses schedule_timeout_idle() instead of schedule_timeout_uninterruptible().
How to confirm the fix worked
Confirm the running kernel contains the cited commit; attempt to reproduce the original scenario with rcuscale.holdoff larger than hung_task_timeout_secs and verify no hung-task message appears.
Typical attack path
- Load the rcuscale kernel module with a large holdoff value
- Observe the kernel logging hung-task warnings after the configured delay
- Use the resulting noise to complicate incident response or hide other activity
How to detect it
Search kernel logs for repeated 'INFO: task rcu_scale_write blocked for more than' messages that coincide with rcuscale module loading or holdoff parameter use.
- INFO: task rcu_scale_write blocked for more than
- rcuscale.holdoff=
- rcu_scale_writer
What your security team should do
- Apply the fixed kernel version to all systems that may run rcuscale or similar test modules
- Review kernel configuration to ensure hung_task_timeout_secs is appropriate for the workload
- Monitor for repeated hung-task messages from rcu_scale_writer as a behavioral indicator
The record
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rcuscale: Move rcu_scale_writer() schedule_timeout_uninterruptible() to _idle() The rcuscale.holdoff module parameter can be used to delay the start of rcu_scale_writer() kthread. However, the hung-task timeout will trigger when the timeout specified by rcuscale.holdoff is greater than hung_task_timeout_secs: runqemu kvm nographic slirp qemuparams="-smp 4 -m 2048M" bootparams="rcuscale.shutdown=0 rcuscale.holdoff=300" [ 247.071753] INFO: task rcu_scale_write:59 blocked for more than 122 seconds. [ 247.072529] Not tainted 6.4.0-rc1-00134-gb9ed6de8d4ff #7 [ 247.073400] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [ 247.074331] task:rcu_scale_write state:D stack:30144 pid:59 ppid:2 flags:0x00004000 [ 247.075346] Call Trace: [ 247.075660] <TASK> [ 247.075965] __schedule+0x635/0x1280 [ 247.076448] ? __pfx___schedule+0x10/0x10 [ 247.076967] ? schedule_timeout+0x2dc/0x4d0 [ 247.077471] ? __pfx_lock_release+0x10/0x10 [ 247.078018] ? enqueue_timer+0xe2/0x220 [ 247.078522] schedule+0x84/0x120 [ 247.078957] schedule_timeout+0x2e1/0x4d0 [ 247.079447] ? __pfx_schedule_timeout+0x10/0x10 [ 247.080032] ? __pfx_rcu_scale_writer+0x10/0x10 [ 247.080591] ? __pfx_process_timeout+0x10/0x10 [ 247.081163] ? __pfx_sched_set_fifo_low+0x10/0x10 [ 247.081760] ? __pfx_rcu_scale_writer+0x10/0x10 [ 247.082287] rcu_scale_writer+0x6b1/0x7f0 [ 247.082773] ? mark_held_locks+0x29/0xa0 [ 247.083252] ? __pfx_rcu_scale_writer+0x10/0x10 [ 247.083865] ? __pfx_rcu_scale_writer+0x10/0x10 [ 247.084412] kthread+0x179/0x1c0 [ 247.084759] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 247.085098] ret_from_fork+0x2c/0x50 [ 247.085433] </TASK> This commit therefore replaces schedule_timeout_uninterruptible() with schedule_timeout_idle().
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Introduced | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Kernel | 0 | 5.10.197 |
| Linux | Kernel | 4.7.0 | 5.10.197 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_19 | 0 | 1-150600.13.3.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | dtb-aarch64 | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-64kb | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-debug | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-default-base | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1.150600.12.38.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-docs | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-kvmsmall | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-build | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-obs-qa | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-source | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-syms | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
| openSUSE:Leap 15.6 | kernel-zfcpdump | 0 | 6.4.0-150600.23.84.1 |
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