Local system crash via null memcg dereference
Published Mar 27, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL dereference in Linux kernel 5.4 through 6.1.10 and 6.2-rc1 through 6.2-rc6 allows local users to crash the system. Forced uncharging of a hardware-poisoned LRU page can leave folio_memcg null, but mem_cgroup_track_foreign_dirty_slowpath dereferences it while recording foreign writeback. Reachability requires that poisoned, uncharged page state; the documented consequence is a kernel crash with no confidentiality or integrity impact.
Summary
What happened
NULL dereference in Linux kernel 5.4 through 6.1.10 and 6.2-rc1 through 6.2-rc6 allows local users to crash the system. Forced uncharging of a hardware-poisoned LRU page can leave folio_memcg null, but mem_cgroup_track_foreign_dirty_slowpath dereferences it while recording foreign writeback. Reachability requires that poisoned, uncharged page state; the documented consequence is a kernel crash with no confidentiality or integrity impact.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52939
- Published
- Mar 27, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 27, 2025CVE 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=5.4
- Affected versionversion=97b27821b4854ca744946dae32a3f2fd55bcd5bc <ac86f547ca1002aec2ef66b9e64d03f45bbbfbb9
- Affected versionversion=97b27821b4854ca744946dae32a3f2fd55bcd5bc <b79ba5953f6fdc5559389ad415620bffc24f024b
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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