CVE-2023-53428

powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones

Medium · published September 18, 2025

CVSS v3.1
5.5
EPSS
0%
Percentile
5.0
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones

Powercap zones can be defined as arranged in a hierarchy of trees and when

registering a zone with powercap_register_zone(), the kernel powercap

subsystem expects this to happen starting from the root zones down to the

leaves; on the other side, de-registration by powercap_deregister_zone()

must begin from the leaf zones.

Available SCMI powercap zones are retrieved dynamically from the platform

at probe time and, while any defined hierarchy between the zones is

described properly in the zones descriptor, the platform returns the

availables zones with no particular well-defined order: as a consequence,

the trees possibly composing the hierarchy of zones have to be somehow

walked properly to register the retrieved zones from the root.

Currently the ARM SCMI Powercap driver walks the zones using a recursive

algorithm; this approach, even though correct and tested can lead to kernel

stack overflow when processing a returned hierarchy of zones composed by

particularly high trees.

Avoid possible kernel stack overflow by substituting the recursive approach

with an iterative one supported by a dynamically allocated stack-like data

structure.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.5 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00162 · 5.0th percentile
Published
2025-09-18T16:04Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 18 SEP 16:04Z
    powercap: arm_scmi: Remove recursion while parsing zones
    cvelistv5