Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-52836
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: locking/ww_mutex/test: Fix potential workqueue corruption In some cases running with the test-ww_mutex code, I was seeing odd behavior where sometimes it seemed flush_workqueue was returning before all the work threads were finished. Often this would cause strange crashes as the mutexes would be freed while they were being used. Looking at the code, there is a lifetime problem as the controlling thread that spawns the work allocates the "struct stress" structures that are passed to the workqueue threads. Then when the workqueue threads are finished, they free the stress struct that was passed to them. Unfortunately the workqueue work_struct node is in the stress struct. Which means the work_struct is freed before the work thread returns and while flush_workqueue is waiting. It seems like a better idea to have the controlling thread both allocate and free the stress structures, so that we can be sure we don't corrupt the workqueue by freeing the structure prematurely. So this patch reworks the test to do so, and with this change I no longer see the early flush_workqueue returns.
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 analysisThe program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds write 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
< 4.14.331>= 4.15, < 4.19.300>= 4.20, < 5.4.262>= 5.5, < 5.10.202>= 5.11, < 5.15.140>= 5.16, < 6.1.64>= 6.2, < 6.5.13>= 6.6, < 6.6.3CVSS 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 · scoped4.14.3314.19.3005.4.262
Linux kernel 5.10.202 (or latest stable 5.10.x), 5.4.262 (or latest stable 5.4.x), 4.19.300 (or latest stable 4.19.x), or 4.14.331 (or latest stable 4.14.x) depending on your branch
- 1. Identify the current running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
- 2. Determine which affected branch your kernel version belongs to (< 4.14.331, 4.15-4.19.300, 4.20-5.4.262, or 5.5-5.10.202)
- 3. Upgrade to a kernel version that includes the fix: 4.14.331 or later for the 4.14 branch, 4.19.300 or later for the 4.19 branch, 5.4.262 or later for the 5.4 branch, or 5.10.202 or later for the 5.10+ branches
- 4. For production systems, prefer the latest stable release in your chosen branch (e.g., 5.10.x should upgrade to 5.10.202 or later; 5.4.x should upgrade to 5.4.262 or later)
- 5. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
- 6. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and reviewing the commit 304a2c4aad0fff887ce493e4197bf9cbaf394479 is included in the changelog
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-2023-52836 — 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-2023-52836 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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