Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-52464

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-02-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.19.306 / 5.4.268 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: EDAC/thunderx: Fix possible out-of-bounds string access Enabling -Wstringop-overflow globally exposes a warning for a common bug in the usage of strncat(): drivers/edac/thunderx_edac.c: In function 'thunderx_ocx_com_threaded_isr': drivers/edac/thunderx_edac.c:1136:17: error: 'strncat' specified bound 1024 equals destination size [-Werror=stringop-overflow=] 1136 | strncat(msg, other, OCX_MESSAGE_SIZE); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... 1145 | strncat(msg, other, OCX_MESSAGE_SIZE); ... 1150 | strncat(msg, other, OCX_MESSAGE_SIZE); ... Apparently the author of this driver expected strncat() to behave the way that strlcat() does, which uses the size of the destination buffer as its third argument rather than the length of the source buffer. The result is that there is no check on the size of the allocated buffer. Change it to strlcat(). [ bp: Trim compiler output, fixup commit message. ]

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 4.12.0, < 4.19.306>= 4.20.0, < 5.4.268>= 5.5.0, < 5.10.209>= 5.11.0, < 5.15.148>= 5.16.0, < 6.1.75>= 6.2.0, < 6.6.14>= 6.7.0, < 6.7.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.19.306 / 5.4.268 / 5.10.209 or later
Fixed in 4.19.3065.4.2685.10.209
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

5.15.148 (or later stable LTS release such as 5.15.x, 6.1.x, or 6.6.y)

  1. Identify the current running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Check if the current version falls within the affected range: >= 4.12.0, < 4.19.306; >= 4.20.0, < 5.4.268; >= 5.5.0, < 5.10.209; >= 5.11.0, < 5.15.148
  3. Schedule a maintenance window for kernel upgrade
  4. Upgrade the Linux kernel to one of the fixed releases: 4.19.306, 5.4.268, 5.10.209, or 5.15.148 (or later stable release)
  5. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  6. Verify the new kernel version is running using 'uname -r'
  7. Confirm the fix is applied by checking that the thunderx_edac.c uses strlcat() instead of strncat()
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuild of out-of-tree modules and could require system downtime for reboot; ensure compatibility with system hardware and installed software before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52464 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52464 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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