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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

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

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 22/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.26% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118df, 137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39, 496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118df, 137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39, 496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

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.

Published
Mar 27, 2025
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 19th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

22

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

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Follow CVE-2023-52993

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
linuxlinux kernel

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • 2.6.18affected
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 744fe9be9665227335539b7a77ece8d9ff62b6c0affected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27affected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 8770cd9d7c14aa99c255a0d08186f0be953e1638affected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before e284c273dbb4c1ed68d4204bff94d0b10e4a90f5affected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118dfaffected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39affected · git
    • a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92 and later · before 5fa55950729d0762a787451dc52862c3f850f859affected · git
    • before 2.6.18not affected · semver
    • 4.14.305 and later · up to and including 4.14.*not affected · semver
Affected versions · NVD (7)

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • linux linux kernel2.6.18 and later · before 4.14.305
  • linux linux kernel4.15 and later · before 4.19.272
  • linux linux kernel4.20 and later · before 5.4.231
  • linux linux kernel5.5 and later · before 5.10.166
  • linux linux kernel5.11 and later · before 5.15.91
  • linux linux kernel5.16 and later · before 6.1.9
  • linux linux kernel6.2

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12linuxbefore 6.1.11-16.1.11-1
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreambpftool-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debug-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debug-develbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debug-devel-matchedbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64before 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64lebefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debuginfo-common-s390xbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64before 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-develbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-devel-matchedbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-docbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-tools-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-zfcpdump-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-zfcpdump-develbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamkernel-zfcpdump-devel-matchedbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamperfbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamperf-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreampython3-perf-debuginfobefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseosbpftoolbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseoskernelbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseoskernel-abi-stablelistsbefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0
Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::baseoskernel-corebefore 0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_00:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0

+14

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-31431crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeKEV
    90Now
  • CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe…KEV
    89Now
  • CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
    85Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2023-52989Mar 27, 2025 · firewire: fix memory leak for payload of request subaction to IEC 61883-1 FCP region
    22Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2023-52991Mar 27, 2025 · net: fix NULL pointer in skb_segment_list
    22Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2023-52994Mar 27, 2025 · acpi: Fix suspend with Xen PV
    22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118dfVendor (CNA)
Linux Linux137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux5fa55950729d0762a787451dc52862c3f850f859Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux744fe9be9665227335539b7a77ece8d9ff62b6c0Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux8770cd9d7c14aa99c255a0d08186f0be953e1638Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxe284c273dbb4c1ed68d4204bff94d0b10e4a90f5Vendor (CNA)
debian:linux6.1.11-1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)
red hat:bpftool-debuginfo0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debug-debuginfo0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debug-devel0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debug-devel-matched0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debuginfo0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch640:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_640:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-devel0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-devel-matched0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)
red hat:kernel-doc0:5.14.0-70.101.1.el9_0 · Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.0::appstreamPackage registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

References

Show all references (6 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records