# CVE-2023-53998: hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data\_avail and actual data

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-12-24 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 2.6.26

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data The virtio rng device kicks off a new entropy request whenever the data available reaches zero. When a new request occurs at the end of a read operation, that is, when the result of that request is only needed by the next reader, then there is a race between the writing of the new data and the next reader. This is because there is no synchronisation whatsoever between the writer and the reader. Fix this by writing data_avail with smp_store_release and reading it with smp_load_acquire when we first enter read. The subsequent reads are safe because they're either protected by the first load acquire, or by the completion mechanism. Also remove the redundant zeroing of data_idx in random_recv_done (data_idx must already be zero at this point) and data_avail in request_entropy (ditto).

## 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.
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  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53998

## 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/241ef15776a7c8505008db689175b320d345ecd3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a43bcb0b661cbbf3ad797d2aee6b6fd06b8fc69d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77471e4912d3960dafe141e268c44be8024fe4dc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c76d991b6f01a5d931e7053a73bc9524975a5215
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22c30022cde6e2c88612b3a499223cfa912f1bc7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/318657b4c2077289659f1cd9e2a34f6a3b208e3e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fc91f156b3f3446a1bce80cf4adedcbf41271c2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac52578d6e8d300dd50f790f29a24169b1edd26c

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53998
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53998
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