Local system crash via unchecked allocation failure
Published Feb 25, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
A NULL pointer dereference in affected Linux kernel releases starting with 5.9 allows local users to crash the system during syscon registration. of_syscon_register() fails to check the name returned by kasprintf() before the registration path dereferences it, so allocation failure supplies a NULL pointer. Exploitation requires local access and influence over a rare memory-allocation failure; Ubuntu states that attacker influence is very unlikely.
Summary
What happened
A NULL pointer dereference in affected Linux kernel releases starting with 5.9 allows local users to crash the system during syscon registration. of_syscon_register() fails to check the name returned by kasprintf() before the registration path dereferences it, so allocation failure supplies a NULL pointer. Exploitation requires local access and influence over a rare memory-allocation failure; Ubuntu states that attacker influence is very unlikely.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52467
- Published
- Feb 25, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 25, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.9
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <3ef1130deee98997275904d9bfc37af75e1e906c
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <41673c66b3d0c09915698fec5c13b24336f18dd1
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <527e8c5f3d00299822612c495d5adf1f8f43c001
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <7f2c410ac470959b88e03dadd94b7a0b71df7973
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <927626a2073887ee30ba00633260d4d203f8e875
- Affected versionversion=e15d7f2b81d2e7d93115d46fa931b366c1cdebc2 <c3e3a2144bf50877551138ffce9f7aa6ddfe385b
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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