CVE-2023-52831
kernel: cpu/hotplug: Don't offline the last non-isolated CPU
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · May 21, 2024
Updated · June 28, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
cpu/hotplug: Don't offline the last non-isolated CPU
If a system has isolated CPUs via the "isolcpus=" command line parameter, then an attempt to offline the last housekeeping CPU will result in a WARN_ON() when rebuilding the scheduler domains and a subsequent panic due to and unhandled empty CPU mas in partition_sched_domains_locked().
cpuset_hotplug_workfn() rebuild_sched_domains_locked() ndoms = generate_sched_domains(&doms, &attr); cpumask_and(doms[0], top_cpuset.effective_cpus, housekeeping_cpumask(HK_FLAG_DOMAIN));
Thus results in an empty CPU mask which triggers the warning and then the subsequent crash:
WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 80 at kernel/sched/topology.c:2366 build_sched_domains+0x120c/0x1408 Call trace: build_sched_domains+0x120c/0x1408 partition_sched_domains_locked+0x234/0x880 rebuild_sched_domains_locked+0x37c/0x798 rebuild_sched_domains+0x30/0x58 cpuset_hotplug_workfn+0x2a8/0x930
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address fffe80027ab37080 partition_sched_domains_locked+0x318/0x880 rebuild_sched_domains_locked+0x37c/0x798
Aside of the resulting crash, it does not make any sense to offline the last last housekeeping CPU.
Prevent this by masking out the non-housekeeping CPUs when selecting a target CPU for initiating the CPU unplug operation via the work queue.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-99 · Improper Control of Resource Identifiers ('Resource Injection')