{"cve":"CVE-2023-53998","nvd":{"published":"2025-12-24T11:15:52.703","modified":"2026-06-17T06:46:30.587","status":"Deferred","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nhwrng: virtio - Fix race on data_avail and actual data\n\nThe virtio rng device kicks off a new entropy request whenever the\ndata available reaches zero.  When a new request occurs at the end\nof a read operation, that is, when the result of that request is\nonly needed by the next reader, then there is a race between the\nwriting of the new data and the next reader.\n\nThis is because there is no synchronisation whatsoever between the\nwriter and the reader.\n\nFix this by writing data_avail with smp_store_release and reading\nit with smp_load_acquire when we first enter read.  The subsequent\nreads are safe because they're either protected by the first load\nacquire, or by the completion mechanism.\n\nAlso remove the redundant zeroing of data_idx in random_recv_done\n(data_idx must already be zero at this point) and data_avail in\nrequest_entropy (ditto).","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":null,"cwes":[],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22c30022cde6e2c88612b3a499223cfa912f1bc7","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/241ef15776a7c8505008db689175b320d345ecd3","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fc91f156b3f3446a1bce80cf4adedcbf41271c2","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/318657b4c2077289659f1cd9e2a34f6a3b208e3e","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77471e4912d3960dafe141e268c44be8024fe4dc"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-19T22:17:07.138532058+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2023-53998","score":0.00211,"percentile":0.11304,"date":"2026-10-31"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}