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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2023-52473 json

thermal: core: Fix NULL pointer dereference in zone registration error path

published 2024-02-25 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-57098

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 19%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

thermal: core: Fix NULL pointer dereference in zone registration error path

If device_register() in thermal_zone_device_register_with_trips() returns an error, the tz variable is set to NULL and subsequently dereferenced in kfree(tz->tzp).

Commit adc8749b150c ("thermal/drivers/core: Use put_device() if device_register() fails") added the tz = NULL assignment in question to avoid a possible double-free after dropping the reference to the zone device. However, after commit 4649620d9404 ("thermal: core: Make thermal_zone_device_unregister() return after freeing the zone"), that assignment has become redundant, because dropping the reference to the zone device does not cause the zone object to be freed any more.

Drop it to address the NULL pointer dereference.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.14, 6.7.2, 6.8
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.6.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52473

  • linux-gcp-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1022.24~22.04.1
  • linux-hwe-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-41.41~22.04.2
  • linux-oem-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1024.25
  • linux-azure-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1022.23~22.04.1
  • linux-riscv-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-40.40.1~22.04.1
  • linux-nvidia-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1021.22
  • linux-oracle-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1024.24~22.04.1
  • linux-starfive-6.5 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 6.5.0-1015.16~22.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52473

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:9315

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-52473 updated cvss 2.3

kernel: NULL pointer dereference in zone registration error path

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available “There are no known mitigations to the problem. Red Hat recommends updating to the latest version of the software.”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, rtla 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.4.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-64k 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-tools 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, python3-perf 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix “There are no known mitigations to the problem. Red Hat recommends updating to the latest version of the software.” RHSA-2024:9315
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-cross-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-headers 5.14.0-503.11.1.el9_5
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.