CVE-2023-54165

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel zsmalloc memory allocator. Under certain memory pressure and reclaim conditions, zsmalloc updated its LRU lists in an unsafe context, which could lead to list corruption due to a race between object mapping and allocation paths. A local user able to trigger specific memory allocation patterns could cause a kernel crash or denial of service.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity because exploitation requires local access and the ability to induce severe memory reclaim pressure to trigger the race condition. Under typical enterprise workloads, successful exploitation is difficult to reliably achieve because the timing window between concurrent pool allocation and reclaim routines is narrow. If successfully triggered, an authenticated local attacker could cause kernel memory corruption, resulting in a system crash or denial of service.

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 for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.