Linux Kernel: Memory Leak (CVE-2023-52560)
Published Sources: Red Hat, BSI, CVE.org, EUVD
What is affected, what to do
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/vaddr-test: fix memory leak in damon_do_test_apply_three_regions() When CONFIG_DAMON_VADDR_KUNIT_TEST=y and making CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK=y and CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_AUTO_SCAN=y, the below memory leak is detected. Since commit 9f86d624292c ("mm/damon/vaddr-test: remove unnecessary variables"), the damon_destroy_ctx() is removed, but still call damon_new_target() and damon_new_region(), the damon_region which is allocated by kmem_cache_alloc() in damon_new_region() and the damon_target which is allocated by kmalloc in damon_new_target() are not freed.
Update Linux Kernel to version 6.1.56, Linux Kernel to version 6.5.6, Linux Kernel to version 6.6.
- Affected
- Linux Kernel
lt 5.16..6.1.56 - Linux Kernel
lt 6.2..6.5.6
- Linux Kernel
- Fixed in
- Linux Kernel
6.1.56 - Linux Kernel
6.5.6 - Linux Kernel
6.6
- Linux Kernel
Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability
Metrics
5.5
XIEM Effective CVSS
Highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: NVD, CVSS v3
5.5
CVSS v3
Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: Red Hat, BSI, CVE.org, EUVD
0.3 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 17.0
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Medium
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 34.31 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 5.5 Methodology
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 5.5
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.3 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 17.0
- Elevated — this CVE ranks above at least 10% of all CVEs scored today.
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: partial
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 4 March 2024
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/vaddr-test: fix memory leak in damon_do_test_apply_three_regions() When CONFIG_DAMON_VADDR_KUNIT_TEST=y and making CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK=y and CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_AUTO_SCAN=y, the below memory leak is detected. Since commit 9f86d624292c ("mm/damon/vaddr-test: remove unnecessary variables"), the damon_destroy_ctx() is removed, but still call damon_new_target() and damon_new_region(), the damon_region which is allocated by kmem_cache_alloc() in damon_new_region() and the damon_target which is allocated by kmalloc in damon_new_target() are not freed. And the damon_region which is allocated in damon_new_region() in damon_set_regions() is also not freed. So use damon_destroy_target to free all the damon_regions and damon_target. unreferenced object 0xffff888107c9a940 (size 64): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1069, jiffies 4294670592 (age 732.761s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b ............kkkk 60 c7 9c 07 81 88 ff ff f8 cb 9c 07 81 88 ff ff `............... backtrace: [<ffffffff817e0167>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0xa0 [<ffffffff819c11cf>] damon_new_target+0x3f/0x1b0 [<ffffffff819c7d55>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0x95/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c82be>] damon_test_apply_three_regions1+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff8881079cc740 (size 56): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1069, jiffies 4294670592 (age 732.761s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 00 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkk....kkkk backtrace: [<ffffffff819bc492>] damon_new_region+0x22/0x1c0 [<ffffffff819c7d91>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0xd1/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c82be>] damon_test_apply_three_regions1+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff888107c9ac40 (size 64): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1071, jiffies 4294670595 (age 732.843s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b ............kkkk a0 cc 9c 07 81 88 ff ff 78 a1 76 07 81 88 ff ff ........x.v..... backtrace: [<ffffffff817e0167>] kmalloc_trace+0x27/0xa0 [<ffffffff819c11cf>] damon_new_target+0x3f/0x1b0 [<ffffffff819c7d55>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0x95/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c851e>] damon_test_apply_three_regions2+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffffffff81003791>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffff8881079ccc80 (size 56): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1071, jiffies 4294670595 (age 732.843s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 00 00 00 00 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkk....kkkk backtrace: [<ffffffff819bc492>] damon_new_region+0x22/0x1c0 [<ffffffff819c7d91>] damon_do_test_apply_three_regions.constprop.0+0xd1/0x3e0 [<ffffffff819c851e>] damon_test_apply_three_regions2+0x21e/0x260 [<ffffffff829fce6a>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x4a/0x90 [<ffffffff81237cf6>] kthread+0x2b6/0x380 [<ffffffff81097add>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 [<ffff ---truncated---
Source: redhat_csaf, BSI CSAF, BSI WID Portal, cvelistv5, ENISA EUVD, NVD (NIST)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux |
|
|
Vendors and products
Affected operating systems
| Linux | linux | linux_kernel | 6.6 |
| Linux | linux | linux_kernel | — |
References & sources
- git.kernel.orgstable/c/9a4fe81a8644b717d57d81ce5849e16583b13fe8euvd, Patch
- git.kernel.orgstable/c/6b522001693aa113d97a985abc5f6932972e8e86euvd, Patch
- git.kernel.orgstable/c/45120b15743fa7c0aa53d5db6dfb4c8f87be4abdeuvd, Patch
Embed badge
Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.
<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2023-52560"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2023-52560.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2023-52560 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>