Security Resilience

CVE-2023-52930

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.5 – 5.10.168

Memory Safety
Published
27 March 2025
Modified
01 October 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0028 19th percentile
Risk Priority 56 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-2023-52930 is a high-severity Double Free (CWE-415) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked at the 19th 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2023-52930 is a double-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's drm/i915 driver, specifically affecting the handling of the bit_17 bitmask during tiling operations. The issue arises when userspace applications with multiple threads race to execute the I915_GEM_SET_TILING ioctl to set tiling to I915_TILING_NONE, potentially leading to a double free of the bitmask or, conversely, a memory leak during transitions to tiled modes. This flaw, classified under CWE-415, carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a multithreaded userspace program that races the I915_GEM_SET_TILING ioctl calls. Successful exploitation could result in high-impact consequences, including arbitrary code execution, denial of service via kernel crashes, or memory corruption, due to the double-free enabling potential use-after-free attacks or memory leaks that disclose sensitive data.

The provided references point to stable kernel patch commits that resolve the issue by moving the allocation and freeing of the bit_17 bitmask inside the section protected by the object lock, preventing the race condition. These patches, cherry-picked from upstream commit 10e0cbaaf1104f449d695c80bcacf930dcd3c42e, have been backported to various stable kernel branches, with tags for stable release inclusion. Security practitioners should ensure systems with the Intel i915 driver are updated to kernels incorporating these fixes.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Fix potential bit_17 double-free A userspace with multiple threads racing I915_GEM_SET_TILING to set the tiling to I915_TILING_NONE could trigger a double free of the bit_17 bitmask. (Or conversely leak…

more

memory on the transition to tiled.) Move allocation/free'ing of the bitmask within the section protected by the obj lock. [tursulin: Correct fixes tag and added cc stable.] (cherry picked from commit 10e0cbaaf1104f449d695c80bcacf930dcd3c42e)

CWE(s)
CWE-415

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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 →
T1003.001 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 →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
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 →
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

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CVE-2023-52667Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53308Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-43278Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-56708Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-43414Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-46183Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.2 · 5.5 — 5.10.168 · 5.11 — 5.15.93 · 5.16 — 6.1.11

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation explicitly includes dynamic analysis and fuzzing that locate double-free defects before release.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles can require memory-safe allocation patterns or language features that structurally eliminate double-free opportunities.

SI-2 Flaw Remediation partial match

Flaw remediation processes require identification and correction of memory-management defects such as double free once discovered.

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 prevent double-free errors via static analysis, safe memory APIs, and testing.

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.5.32 Intellectual property rights partial match
removes

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248590 OL 8 must clear the page allocator to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-415

References