CVE-2023-52989

Local service interruption via unreleased FireWire payloads

Published Mar 27, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026

Memory leak in the FireWire FCP request handler in Linux allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through repeated FCP requests. The ioctl_send_response() path expects release_request() to free each per-listener payload copy, but release_client_resource() delegates cleanup to its caller and leaves the object allocated. Exploitation requires low-privilege local access and repeated FireWire FCP request handling, causing memory exhaustion and service interruption without data disclosure or modification.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.26%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Memory leak in the FireWire FCP request handler in Linux allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through repeated FCP requests. The ioctl_send_response() path expects release_request() to free each per-listener payload copy, but release_client_resource() delegates cleanup to its caller and leaves the object allocated. Exploitation requires low-privilege local access and repeated FireWire FCP request handling, causing memory exhaustion and service interruption without data disclosure or modification.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-52989
Published
Mar 27, 2025
Updated
May 11, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
CWE-401, T1499.001
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 27, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=2.6.33
  2. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <356ff89acdbe6a66019154bc7eb2d300f5b15103
  3. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <531390a243ef47448f8bad01c186c2787666bf4d
  4. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <53785fd9b315583cf029e39f72b73d23704a2253
  5. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <5f4543c9382ae2d5062f6aa4fecae0c9258d0b0e
  6. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <b2cd3947d116bb9ba7ff097b5fc747a8956764db
  7. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <c8bdc88216f09cb7387fedbdf613524367328616
  8. Affected versionversion=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <d5a2dcee53fa6e6e2822f93cb3f1b0cd23163bee

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=2.6.33; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <356ff89acdbe6a66019154bc7eb2d300f5b15103; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <531390a243ef47448f8bad01c186c2787666bf4d; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <53785fd9b315583cf029e39f72b73d23704a2253; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <5f4543c9382ae2d5062f6aa4fecae0c9258d0b0e; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <b2cd3947d116bb9ba7ff097b5fc747a8956764db; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <c8bdc88216f09cb7387fedbdf613524367328616; version=281e20323ab72180137824a298ee9e21e6f9acf6 <d5a2dcee53fa6e6e2822f93cb3f1b0cd23163bee

Published CVSS scores

5.5CISA-ADPCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
5.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-401Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
T1499.001OS Exhaustion Flood

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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