Kernel privilege escalation via CIFS session race
Published May 2, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel CIFS DFS cache in 6.2 through 6.2.7 allows local users to gain kernel privileges via a race. cifs_umount releases DFS root sessions while refresh_cache_worker can still dereference them to obtain new DFS referrals. An existing DFS CIFS mount is required; low-privileged path traversal can trigger automount expiry and repeatedly race the refresher.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel CIFS DFS cache in 6.2 through 6.2.7 allows local users to gain kernel privileges via a race. cifs_umount releases DFS root sessions while refresh_cache_worker can still dereference them to obtain new DFS referrals. An existing DFS CIFS mount is required; low-privileged path traversal can trigger automount expiry and repeatedly race the refresher.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-53052
- Published
- May 2, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 2, 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=6.2
- Affected versionversion=6916881f443f67f6893b504fa2171468c8aed915 <396935de145589c8bfe552fa03a5e38604071829
- Affected versionversion=6916881f443f67f6893b504fa2171468c8aed915 <5a89d81c1a3c152837ea204fd29572228e54ce0b
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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Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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