Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-52517
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: spi: sun6i: fix race between DMA RX transfer completion and RX FIFO drain Previously the transfer complete IRQ immediately drained to RX FIFO to read any data remaining in FIFO to the RX buffer. This behaviour is correct when dealing with SPI in interrupt mode. However in DMA mode the transfer complete interrupt still fires as soon as all bytes to be transferred have been stored in the FIFO. At that point data in the FIFO still needs to be picked up by the DMA engine. Thus the drain procedure and DMA engine end up racing to read from RX FIFO, corrupting any data read. Additionally the RX buffer pointer is never adjusted according to DMA progress in DMA mode, thus calling the RX FIFO drain procedure in DMA mode is a bug. Fix corruptions in DMA RX mode by draining RX FIFO only in interrupt mode. Also wait for completion of RX DMA when in DMA mode before returning to ensure all data has been copied to the supplied memory buffer.
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 analysisTwo operations that should be atomic can interleave, so an attacker who wins a narrow timing window reaches an inconsistent, exploitable state. These bugs are subtle and easy to miss in review. Fixing them properly means correct locking or atomic operations around the shared resource.
General guidance for the race condition 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
< 5.15.134>= 5.16, < 6.1.56>= 6.2, < 6.5.6CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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 · scoped5.15.1346.1.566.5.6
Linux Kernel 5.15.134 (or 6.1.56 or 6.5.6 depending on your current branch, or latest stable
- Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
- Determine which major kernel branch you are on (e.g., 5.15.x, 5.16-6.1.x, 6.2-6.5.x, or a newer branch)
- Upgrade to the first fixed release for your branch: for 5.15.x upgrade to 5.15.134 or later; for 5.16-6.1.x upgrade to 6.1.56 or later; for 6.2-6.5.x upgrade to 6.5.6 or later; for 6.6+ upgrade to the latest stable release
- Reboot into the new kernel and verify the system boots correctly
- Confirm the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches or exceeds the fixed release
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52517 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52517 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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