CVE-2023-52841

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.10 – 5.10.201

Memory Safety

Published

21 May 2024

Modified

31 December 2024

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v3.1 5.5

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0024 14th percentile

Risk Priority 42 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-2023-52841 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 Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked at the 14th 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

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-59554

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: vidtv: mux: Add check and kfree for kstrdup Add check for the return value of kstrdup() and return the error if it fails in order to avoid NULL pointer…

dereference. Moreover, use kfree() in the later error handling in order to avoid memory leak.

CWE(s): CWE-401 CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control

Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.

attack.mitre.org →

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control

Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.

attack.mitre.org →

T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control

Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.

attack.mitre.org →

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.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux

linux kernel

5.10 — 5.10.201 · 5.11 — 5.15.139 · 5.16 — 6.1.63

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

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.

PR.PS-06 partial match

blocks

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match

removes

A.5.15 Access control partial match

removes

A.5.16 Identity management partial match

removes

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match

removes

A.5.18 Access rights partial match

removes

A.8.10 Information deletion partial match

removes