CVE-2023-52560
Linux Kernel 5.16 – 6.1.56
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2023-52560 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 17th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-57184
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/vaddr-test: fix memory leak in damon_do_test_apply_three_regions() When CONFIG_DAMON_VADDR_KUNIT_TEST=y and making CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK=y and CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_AUTO_SCAN=y, the below memory leak is detected. Since commit 9f86d624292c ("mm/damon/vaddr-test: remove unnecessary variables"), the damon_destroy_ctx() is removed,…
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but still call damon_new_target() and damon_new_region(), the damon_region which is allocated by kmem_cache_alloc() in damon_new_region() and the damon_target which is allocated by kmalloc in damon_new_target() are not freed. And the damon_region which is allocated in damon_new_region() in damon_set_regions() is also not freed. So use damon_destroy_target to free all the damon_regions and damon_target. unreferenced object 0xffff888107c9a940 (size 64): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1069, jiffies 4294670592 (age 732.761s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b ............kkkk 60 c7 9c 07 81 88 ff ff f8 cb 9c 07 81 88 ff ff `............... backtrace: [<ffffffff817e0167>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0xa0 [<ffffffff819c11cf>] damon_new_target+0x3f/0x1b0 [<ffffffff819c7d55>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0x95/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c82be>] damon_test_apply_three_regions1+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff8881079cc740 (size 56): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1069, jiffies 4294670592 (age 732.761s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 00 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkk....kkkk backtrace: [<ffffffff819bc492>] damon_new_region+0x22/0x1c0 [<ffffffff819c7d91>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0xd1/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c82be>] damon_test_apply_three_regions1+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff888107c9ac40 (size 64): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1071, jiffies 4294670595 (age 732.843s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b ............kkkk a0 cc 9c 07 81 88 ff ff 78 a1 76 07 81 88 ff ff ........x.v..... backtrace: [<ffffffff817e0167>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0xa0 [<ffffffff819c11cf>] damon_new_target+0x3f/0x1b0 [<ffffffff819c7d55>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0x95/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c851e>] damon_test_apply_three_regions2+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff8881079ccc80 (size 56): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1071, jiffies 4294670595 (age 732.843s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 00 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkk....kkkk backtrace: [<ffffffff819bc492>] damon_new_region+0x22/0x1c0 [<ffffffff819c7d91>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0xd1/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c851e>] damon_test_apply_three_regions2+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffff ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.
Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.
Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.