Security Resilience

CVE-2023-52749

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel ≤ 6.1.66

Published
21 May 2024
Modified
06 January 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0018 7th percentile
Risk Priority 36 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-52749 is a medium-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 7th 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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: spi: Fix null dereference on suspend A race condition exists where a synchronous (noqueue) transfer can be active during a system suspend. This can cause a null pointer dereference exception…

more

to occur when the system resumes. Example order of events leading to the exception: 1. spi_sync() calls __spi_transfer_message_noqueue() which sets ctlr->cur_msg 2. Spi transfer begins via spi_transfer_one_message() 3. System is suspended interrupting the transfer context 4. System is resumed 6. spi_controller_resume() calls spi_start_queue() which resets cur_msg to NULL 7. Spi transfer context resumes and spi_finalize_current_message() is called which dereferences cur_msg (which is now NULL) Wait for synchronous transfers to complete before suspending by acquiring the bus mutex and setting/checking a suspend flag.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
T1012 Query Registry Discovery
Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to gather information about the system, configuration, and installed software.
T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may look for details about the network configuration and settings, such as IP and/or MAC addresses, of systems they access or through information discovery of remote systems.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-24860Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-31083Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-39296Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
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CVE-2024-35977Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-56540Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-23196Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-56568Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-38632Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-43866Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
≤ 6.1.66 · 6.2 — 6.6.3

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.

Maintaining separate execution domains for each process structurally eliminates unintended concurrent access to the same shared resources.

Preventing unintended information transfer through shared system resources directly addresses the improper concurrent modification that defines a race condition.

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.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.

removes
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Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-362, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References