System crashes via unsafe PLL CPUX rate changes
Published May 30, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
Clock instability in Linux kernel branches beginning with 4.17 allows local users to crash Allwinner H6 systems during CPU frequency changes. In drivers/clk/sunxi-ng/ccu-sun50i-h6.c, CPUX remains sourced by PLL_CPUX while its rate changes instead of being temporarily reparented to the stable 24 MHz oscillator. Reachability requires an Allwinner H6 clock controller and the ability to initiate CPU-frequency changes; repeated transitions cause intermittent crashes or undefined behavior.
Summary
What happened
Clock instability in Linux kernel branches beginning with 4.17 allows local users to crash Allwinner H6 systems during CPU frequency changes. In drivers/clk/sunxi-ng/ccu-sun50i-h6.c, CPUX remains sourced by PLL_CPUX while its rate changes instead of being temporarily reparented to the stable 24 MHz oscillator. Reachability requires an Allwinner H6 clock controller and the ability to initiate CPU-frequency changes; repeated transitions cause intermittent crashes or undefined behavior.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52882
- Published
- May 30, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 30, 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?
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- Affected versionversion=4.17
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <0b82eb134d2942ecc669e2ab2be3f0a58d79428a
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <70f64cb29014e4c4f1fabd3265feebd80590d069
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <7e91ed763dc07437777bd012af7a2bd4493731ff
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <9708e5081cfc4f085690294163389bcf82655f90
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <bfc78b4628497eb6df09a6b5bba9dd31616ee175
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <f1fa9a9816204ac4b118b2e613d3a7c981355019
- Affected versionversion=524353ea480b0094c16f2b5684ce7e0a23ab3685 <fe11826ffa200e1a7a826e745163cb2f47875f66
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
Your stack
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