CVE-2023-52931
Published: 27 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2023-52931 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 16.4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-52931 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's drm/i915 driver, which handles Intel graphics processing. The issue arises when adding a virtual memory (VM) object to the vm_xa table, making it visible to userspace before taking an extra reference. This allows userspace to potentially race ahead and close the VM, leading to a use-after-free condition. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-416 (Use After Free) with 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 due to its low attack complexity and lack of user interaction requirements. Successful exploitation could result in high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations, potentially enabling arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation, or system crashes within the context of the affected process.
The provided references point to stable kernel patch commits that resolve the issue: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/41d419382ec7e257e54b7b6ff0d3623aafb1316d and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/764accc2c1b8fd1507be2e7f436c94cdce887a00. These patches ensure an extra reference is taken on the VM before inserting it into the vm_xa table, preventing the race condition. Security practitioners should update to kernels incorporating these cherry-picked fixes from upstream commit 99343c46d4e2b34c285d3d5f68ff04274c2f9fb4.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-59759
Vulnerability details
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915: Avoid potential vm use-after-free Adding the vm to the vm_xa table makes it visible to userspace, which could try to race with us to close the vm. So we…
more
need to take our extra reference before putting it in the table. (cherry picked from commit 99343c46d4e2b34c285d3d5f68ff04274c2f9fb4)
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local kernel use-after-free in drm/i915 driver enables low-privileged attacker to trigger arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly addresses the CVE by requiring timely remediation through kernel patching to fix the use-after-free race in drm/i915.
Implements memory safeguards like non-executable memory and randomization to mitigate exploitation of the kernel use-after-free vulnerability.
Enables identification of the vulnerable kernel via scanning, supporting proactive patching of the drm/i915 flaw.