CVE-2023-52739

What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Fix page corruption caused by racy check in __free_pages When we upgraded our kernel, we started seeing some page corruption like the following consistently: BUG: Bad page state in process ganesha.nfsd pfn:1304ca page:0000000022261c55 refcount:0 mapcount:-128 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x1304ca flags: 0x17ffffc0000000() raw: 0017ffffc0000000 ffff8a513ffd4c98 ffffeee24b35ec08 0000000000000000 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000001 00000000ffffff7f 0000000000000000 page dumped because: nonzero mapcount CPU: 0 PID: 15567 Comm: ganesha.nfsd Kdump: loaded Tainted: P B O 5.10.158-1.nutanix.20221209.el7.x86_64 #1 Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/05/2016 Call Trace: dump_stack+0x74/0x96 bad_page.cold+0x63/0x94 check_new_page_bad+0x6d/0x80 rmqueue+0x46e/0x970 get_page_from_freelist+0xcb/0x3f0 ? _cond_resched+0x19/0x40 __alloc_pages_nodemask+0x164/0x300 alloc_pages_current+0x87/0xf0 skb_page_frag_refill+0x84/0x110 ... Sometimes, it would also show up as corruption in the free list pointer and cause crashes. After bisecting the issue, we found the issue started from commit e320d3012d25 ("mm/page_alloc.c: fix freeing non-compound pages"): if (put_page_testzero(page)) free_the_page(page, order); else if (!PageHead(page)) while (order-- > 0) free_the_page(page + (1 << order), order); So the problem is the check PageHead is racy because at this point we already dropped our reference to the page. So even if we came in with compound page, the page can already be freed and PageHead can return false and we will end up freeing all the tail pages causing double free.

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited locally on the machine with a low-privilege account. High risk of data exposure, data tampering, service disruption.

Exploit odds

0.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2024-05-21 16:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-08-04 10:18 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 0.3% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 7.8 HIGH (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2024-05-21 16:15 UTC

Last modified

2026-08-04 10:18 UTC

Exploit probability

0.3% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-415

Record status

Modified

Affected

• Linux Kernel < 5.10.168
• Linux Kernel < 5.15.94
• Linux Kernel < 6.1.12
• Linux Kernel 6.2

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 7.8

Attack vector

Local

Complexity

Low

Privileges needed

Low

User interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2023-52739.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2023-52739. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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