Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 4.7

CVE-2023-52489 json

mm/sparsemem: fix race in accessing memory_section->usage

published 2024-02-29 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2023-57114

cvss
4.7
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 22%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mm/sparsemem: fix race in accessing memory_section->usage

The below race is observed on a PFN which falls into the device memory region with the system memory configuration where PFN's are such that [ZONE_NORMAL ZONE_DEVICE ZONE_NORMAL]. Since normal zone start and end pfn contains the device memory PFN's as well, the compaction triggered will try on the device memory PFN's too though they end up in NOP(because pfn_to_online_page() returns NULL for ZONE_DEVICE memory sections). When from other core, the section mappings are being removed for the ZONE_DEVICE region, that the PFN in question belongs to, on which compaction is currently being operated is resulting into the kernel crash with CONFIG_SPASEMEM_VMEMAP enabled. The crash logs can be seen at [1].

compact_zone() memunmap_pages ------------- --------------- __pageblock_pfn_to_page ...... (a)pfn_valid(): valid_section()//return true (b)__remove_pages()-> sparse_remove_section()-> section_deactivate(): [Free the array ms->usage and set ms->usage = NULL] pfn_section_valid() [Access ms->usage which is NULL]

NOTE: From the above it can be said that the race is reduced to between the pfn_valid()/pfn_section_valid() and the section deactivate with SPASEMEM_VMEMAP enabled.

The commit b943f045a9af("mm/sparse: fix kernel crash with pfn_section_valid check") tried to address the same problem by clearing the SECTION_HAS_MEM_MAP with the expectation of valid_section() returns false thus ms->usage is not accessed.

Fix this issue by the below steps:

a) Clear SECTION_HAS_MEM_MAP before freeing the ->usage.

b) RCU protected read side critical section will either return NULL when SECTION_HAS_MEM_MAP is cleared or can successfully access ->usage.

c) Free the ->usage with kfree_rcu() and set ms->usage = NULL. No attempt will be made to access ->usage after this as the SECTION_HAS_MEM_MAP is cleared thus valid_section() return false.

Thanks to David/Pavan for their inputs on this patch.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/994410bb-89aa-d987-1f50-f514903c55aa@quicinc.com/

On Snapdragon SoC, with the mentioned memory configuration of PFN's as [ZONE_NORMAL ZONE_DEVICE ZONE_NORMAL], we are able to see bunch of issues daily while testing on a device farm.

For this particular issue below is the log. Though the below log is not directly pointing to the pfn_section_valid(){ ms->usage;}, when we loaded this dump on T32 lauterbach tool, it is pointing.

[ 540.578056] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 [ 540.578068] Mem abort info: [ 540.578070] ESR = 0x0000000096000005 [ 540.578073] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 540.578077] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 540.578080] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 540.578082] FSC = 0x05: level 1 translation fault [ 540.578085] Data abort info: [ 540.578086] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000005 [ 540.578088] CM = 0, WnR = 0 [ 540.579431] pstate: 82400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO -DIT -SSBSBTYPE=--) [ 540.579436] pc : __pageblock_pfn_to_page+0x6c/0x14c [ 540.579454] lr : compact_zone+0x994/0x1058 [ 540.579460] sp : ffffffc03579b510 [ 540.579463] x29: ffffffc03579b510 x28: 0000000000235800 x27:000000000000000c [ 540.579470] x26: 0000000000235c00 x25: 0000000000000068 x24:ffffffc03579b640 [ 540.579477] x23: 0000000000000001 x22: ffffffc03579b660 x21:0000000000000000 [ 540.579483] x20: 0000000000235bff x19: ffffffdebf7e3940 x18:ffffffdebf66d140 [ 540.579489] x17: 00000000739ba063 x16: 00000000739ba063 x15:00000000009f4bff [ 540.579495] x14: 0000008000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12:0000000000000001 [ 540.579501] x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 :ffffff897d2cd440 [ 540.579507] x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 :ffffffc03579b5b4 [ 540.579512] x5 : 0000000000027f25 x4 : ffffffc03579b5b8 x3 :0000000000000 ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.210, 5.15.149, 6.1.76, 6.6.15, 6.7.3, 6.8
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.76-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.6.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52489

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-106.116
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1061.67
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1059.67
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1058.63
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1054.57
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1058.63
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1063.72
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.51

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52489

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 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:10262RHSA-2024:8614RHSA-2024:8613RHSA-2024:6991RHSA-2024:6990RHSA-2024:2394

  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP6, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP6, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP6, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 +3 more 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.23.38.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:0499-1SUSE-SU-2025:0428-1SUSE-SU-2025:20047-1SUSE-SU-2025:20044-1SUSE-SU-2025:0289-1SUSE-SU-2024:3483-1

  • kernel-rt AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-kvm AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-kvm AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-debug-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel-rt-modules-extra AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10

almalinux advisories ALSA-2024:2950ALSA-2024:3138ALSA-2024:2394

  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.123.1.el8_10.cloud.0.1
  • kernel-rt Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10
  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.el8_10

rocky linux advisories RXSA-2024:3138RLSA-2024:2950RLSA-2024:3138

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-2023-52489 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: mm/sparsemem: fix race in accessing memory_section->usage

  • 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: no fix available
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v.8.8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:10262
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v.9.2) kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:8613
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, rtla 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.9.0) perf 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-zfcpdump-devel-matched 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:6991
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.2) perf 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, rtla 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, +5 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:8613
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel 4.18.0-553.el8_10, bpftool 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-core 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-tools 4.18.0-553.el8_10, python3-perf 4.18.0-553.el8_10, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:3138
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-tools 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, python3-perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +28 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
show 12 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS E4S (v.9.0) kernel 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, bpftool 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-core 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-tools 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, python3-perf 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, kernel-modules 5.14.0-70.117.1.el9_0, +14 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:6991
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.8.8) perf 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, kernel 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, bpftool 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, kernel-core 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, python3-perf 4.18.0-477.81.1.el8_8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:10262
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v.9.2) bpftool 7.0.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-64k 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, kernel-tools 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, python3-perf 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2, +28 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:8613
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-553.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:3138
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2950
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV E4S (v.9.0) kernel-rt 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time E4S (v.9.0) kernel-rt 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, kernel-rt-modules-extra 5.14.0-70.117.1.rt21.189.el9_0, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:6990
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time EUS (v.9.2) kernel-rt 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV EUS (v.9.2) kernel-rt 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-284.90.1.rt14.375.el9_2, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:8614
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-553.rt7.342.el8_10, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2950
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • 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 AppStream EUS (v.9.2) kernel-doc 5.14.0-284.90.1.el9_2
    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

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 22% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90ad17575d26874287271127d43ef3c2af876cea referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b448de2459b6d62a53892487ab18b7d823ff0529 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/68ed9e33324021e9d6b798e9db00ca3093d2012a referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/70064241f2229f7ba7b9599a98f68d9142e81a97 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a01daace71b521563c38bbbf874e14c3e58adb7 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ec8e8ea8b7783fab150cf86404fc38cb4db8800 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
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.