Local privilege escalation via netns out-of-bounds write
Published Mar 27, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel allows local users to corrupt kernel memory by triggering net namespace operations during module loading. When net_assign_generic() fails, ops_init() clears an unchanged gen pointer slot using an index beyond the smaller existing allocation. A normal local account can induce the allocation failure and module autoload, enabling adjacent heap corruption, kernel crash, or privilege escalation without user interaction.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel allows local users to corrupt kernel memory by triggering net namespace operations during module loading. When net_assign_generic() fails, ops_init() clears an unchanged gen pointer slot using an index beyond the smaller existing allocation. A normal local account can induce the allocation failure and module autoload, enabling adjacent heap corruption, kernel crash, or privilege escalation without user interaction.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-52999
- Published
- Mar 27, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 27, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 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=4.19.264 <4.19.272
- Affected versionversion=4a4df5e78712de39d6f90d6a64b5eb48dca03bd5
- Affected versionversion=5.10.153 <5.10.166
- Affected versionversion=5.15.77 <5.15.91
- Affected versionversion=5.4.223 <5.4.231
- Affected versionversion=5a2ea549be94924364f6911227d99be86e8cf34a <ad0dfe9bcf0d78e699c7efb64c90ed062dc48bea
- Affected versionversion=6.0.7 <6.1
- Affected versionversion=6.1
- Affected versionversion=97ad240fd9aa9214497d14af2b91608e20856cac <ddd49cbbd4c1ceb38032018b589b44208e54f55e
- Affected versionversion=a1e18acb0246bfb001b08b8b1b830b5ec92a0f13 <66689a72ba73575e76d4f6a8748d3fa2690ec1c4
- Affected versionversion=c3edc6e808209aa705185f732e682a370981ced1 <d4c008f3b7f7d4ffd311eb2dae5e75b3cbddacd0
- Affected versionversion=d266935ac43d57586e311a087510fe6a084af742 <12075708f2e77ee6a9f8bb2cf512c38be3099794
- Affected versionversion=d266935ac43d57586e311a087510fe6a084af742 <71ab9c3e2253619136c31c89dbb2c69305cc89b1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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