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Vulnerability · Published Mar 27, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-52993x86/i8259: Mark legacy PIC interrupts with IRQ_LEVEL

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity null pointer dereference in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 19% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 80.8% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/i8259: Mark legacy PIC interrupts with IRQ_LEVEL Baoquan reported that after triggering a crash the subsequent crash-kernel fails to boot about half of the time. It triggers a NULL pointer dereference in the periodic tick code. This happens because the legacy timer interrupt (IRQ0) is resent in software which happens in soft interrupt (tasklet) context. In this context get_irq_regs() returns NULL which leads to the NULL pointer dereference. The reason for the resend is a spurious APIC interrupt on the IRQ0 vector which is captured and leads to a resend when the legacy timer interrupt is enabled. This is wrong because the legacy PIC interrupts are level triggered and therefore should never be resent in software, but nothing ever sets the IRQ_LEVEL flag on those interrupts, so the core code does not know about their trigger type. Ensure that IRQ_LEVEL is set when the legacy PCI interrupts are set up.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52993
Debian:13linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52993
Debian:14linux6.1.11-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-70.77UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1034.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1036.43UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1036.43.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1032.40UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1031.36UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1018.23UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1028.31UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1028.33UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1031.36UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-70.77UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1023.23UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1033.39UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1027.29UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 744fe9be9665227335539b7a77ece8d9ff62b6c0a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 8770cd9d7c14aa99c255a0d08186f0be953e1638a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before e284c273dbb4c1ed68d4204bff94d0b10e4a90f5a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118dfa4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 – before 5fa55950729d0762a787451dc52862c3f850f859
Linux Linux 2.6.18

Weakness: CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References