Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-52935)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2023-52935). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/khugepaged: fix ->anon_vma race

If an ->anon_vma is attached to the VMA, collapse_and_free_pmd() requires
it to be locked.

Page table traversal is allowed under any one of the mmap lock, the
anon_vma lock (if the VMA is associated with an anon_vma), and the
mapping lock (if the VMA is associated with a mapping); and so to be
able to remove page tables, we must hold all three of them.
retract_page_tables() bails out if an ->anon_vma is attached, but does
this check before holding the mmap lock (as the comment above the check
explains).

If we racily merged an existing ->anon_vma (shared with a child
process) from a neighboring VMA, subsequent rmap traversals on pages
belonging to the child will be able to see the page tables that we are
concurrently removing while assuming that nothing else can access them.

Repeat the ->anon_vma check once we hold the mmap lock to ensure that
there really is no concurrent page table access.

Hitting this bug causes a lockdep warning in collapse_and_free_pmd(),
in the line "lockdep_assert_held_write(&vma->anon_vma->root->rwsem)".
It can also lead to use-after-free access.

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-52935 has been found in Kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2023-52935" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2023-52935 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11
```
ステージング環境で 5.4.299, 5.10.243, 5.15.192, 6.1.11 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.8.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.299"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.243"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.192"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.11"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52935 linux Fixed in: 5.10.244-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52935 linux-azure