Service interruption via unreleased flow allocation
Published Mar 27, 2025 · Updated May 23, 2026
Memory leakage in the Linux kernel Open vSwitch datapath allows local users to interrupt service by exhausting kernel memory. On a failed flow-key allocation, ovs_flow_cmd_new() exits through an error path that does not release the new_flow object allocated by ovs_flow_alloc(). Low-privileged local access is required, and repeated requests accumulate unreleased kernel objects.
Summary
What happened
Memory leakage in the Linux kernel Open vSwitch datapath allows local users to interrupt service by exhausting kernel memory. On a failed flow-key allocation, ovs_flow_cmd_new() exits through an error path that does not release the new_flow object allocated by ovs_flow_alloc(). Low-privileged local access is required, and repeated requests accumulate unreleased kernel objects.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52977
- Published
- Mar 27, 2025
- Updated
- May 23, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 27, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 23, 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=0133615a06007684df648feb9d327714e399afd4 <f423c2efd51d7eb1d143c2be7eea233241d9bbbf
- Affected versionversion=32d5fa5bdccec2361fc6c4ed05a7367155b3a1e9 <70d40674a549d498bd63d5432acf46205da1534b
- Affected versionversion=4.14.303 <4.14.306
- Affected versionversion=4.19.270 <4.19.273
- Affected versionversion=4.9.337 <4.10
- Affected versionversion=4f592e712ea2132f511d545954867d7880df5be2
- Affected versionversion=5.10.163 <5.10.168
- Affected versionversion=5.15.86 <5.15.93
- Affected versionversion=5.4.229 <5.4.232
- Affected versionversion=6.0.16 <6.1
- Affected versionversion=6.1.2 <6.1.11
- Affected versionversion=655e873bf528f0f46ce6b069f9a2daee9621197c <1ac653cf886cdfc082708c82dc6ac6115cebd2ee
- Affected versionversion=6736b61ecf230dd656464de0f514bdeadb384f20 <70154489f531587996f3e9d7cceeee65cff0001d
- Affected versionversion=68bb10101e6b0a6bb44e9c908ef795fc4af99eae <0c598aed445eb45b0ee7ba405f7ece99ee349c30
- Affected versionversion=8b74211bf60b3e0c0ed4fe3d16c92ffdcaaf34eb <ed6c5e8caf55778500202775167e8ccdb1a030cb
- Affected versionversion=a991a411c3e21ef22507400dbb179ae02029d42c
- Affected versionversion=ee27d70556a47c3a07e65a60f47e3ea12a255af8 <af4e720bc00a2653f7b9df21755b9978b3d7f386
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.
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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