Kernel crash via RX DMA shutdown race
Published May 2, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Race condition in the fsl_lpuart serial driver in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the kernel during RX DMA shutdown. During shutdown, a DMA completion interrupt can restart the receive timer after the descriptor is freed, so the later timer callback dereferences a NULL dma_rx_desc pointer. The flaw requires local low-privileged access to an active Freescale LPUART device using RX DMA; successful triggering causes a system crash.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in the fsl_lpuart serial driver in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the kernel during RX DMA shutdown. During shutdown, a DMA completion interrupt can restart the receive timer after the descriptor is freed, so the later timer callback dereferences a NULL dma_rx_desc pointer. The flaw requires local low-privileged access to an active Freescale LPUART device using RX DMA; successful triggering causes a system crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53094
- Published
- May 2, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-362, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 2, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0d5cb6e8b4b62d8efd1a470615894276341d6db9
- Affected versionversion=3.18.9 <3.19
- Affected versionversion=3.19.1 <3.20
- Affected versionversion=4.0
- Affected versionversion=4a8588a1cf867333187d9ff071e6fbdab587d194 <19a98d56dfedafb25652bdb9cd48a4e73ceba702
- Affected versionversion=4a8588a1cf867333187d9ff071e6fbdab587d194 <1be6f2b15f902c02e055ae0b419ca789200473c9
- Affected versionversion=4a8588a1cf867333187d9ff071e6fbdab587d194 <2a36b444cace9580380467fd1183bb5e85bcc80a
- Affected versionversion=4a8588a1cf867333187d9ff071e6fbdab587d194 <90530e7214c8a04dcdde57502d93fa96af288c38
- Affected versionversion=4a8588a1cf867333187d9ff071e6fbdab587d194 <954fc9931f0aabf272b5674cf468affdd88d3a36
- Affected versionversion=5716a781032693d0f812ed06528d98195e9df028
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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