CVE-2023-52998

Memory exhaustion via unrecycled FEC receive buffers

Published Mar 27, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026

Resource exhaustion in the FEC Ethernet driver in Linux 6.1 through 6.1.8 allows local users to exhaust memory by cycling eth0. The receive-buffer cleanup path calls page_pool_release_page, which unmaps each page without returning it to the page pool for reuse. Repeated privileged interface down/up operations leak receive-buffer pages until the host runs out of memory, causing a service interrupt.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.17%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in the FEC Ethernet driver in Linux 6.1 through 6.1.8 allows local users to exhaust memory by cycling eth0. The receive-buffer cleanup path calls page_pool_release_page, which unmaps each page without returning it to the page pool for reuse. Repeated privileged interface down/up operations leak receive-buffer pages until the host runs out of memory, causing a service interrupt.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-52998
Published
Mar 27, 2025
Updated
May 11, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
T1499.004
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

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Is a vulnerable build present?

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

  1. Affected versionversion=6.1
  2. Affected versionversion=95698ff6177b5f1f13f251da60e7348413046ae4 <554484a34e985a307756ee4794e60be31e3db2e5
  3. Affected versionversion=95698ff6177b5f1f13f251da60e7348413046ae4 <e38553bdc377e3e7a6caa9dd9770d8b644d8dac3

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=6.1; version=95698ff6177b5f1f13f251da60e7348413046ae4 <554484a34e985a307756ee4794e60be31e3db2e5; version=95698ff6177b5f1f13f251da60e7348413046ae4 <e38553bdc377e3e7a6caa9dd9770d8b644d8dac3

Published CVSS scores

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

T1499.004Endpoint Denial of Service: Application or System Exploitation

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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