5.5

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

Modified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2023-52993DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52993
Published 27-03-2025Last modified 11-05-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-52993 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.27%
0%100%
Low · +0.01 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 7 · Related 5
RHSA-2023:6583RHSA-2024:3421SUSE-SU-2025:01983-1SUSE-SU-2025:1176-1SUSE-SU-2025:1183-1SUSE-SU-2025:1195-1

Timeline

  1. 27-03-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 11-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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.

CVSS metrics

4 scores · 4 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.27%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

19%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

Increase +0.01 pp

From 0.26% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu113 products
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-209.220 | < 5.4.0-147.164 | < 5.15.0-70.77
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-1154.167 | < 5.4.0-1100.108 | < 5.15.0-1034.38
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 744fe9be9665227335539b7a77ece8d9ff62b6c0 | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 496975d1a2937f4baadf3d985991b13fc4fc4f27 | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 8770cd9d7c14aa99c255a0d08186f0be953e1638 | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < e284c273dbb4c1ed68d4204bff94d0b10e4a90f5 | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 0b08201158f177aab469e356b4d6af24fdd118df | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 137f1b47da5f58805da42c1b7811e28c1e353f39 | ≥ a4633adcdbc15ac51afcd0e1395de58cee27cf92, < 5fa55950729d0762a787451dc52862c3f850f859 | 2.6.18
  • linux_kernel≥ 2.6.18, < 4.14.305 | ≥ 4.15, < 4.19.272 | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.231 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.166 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.91 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.9 | 6.2:rc1 | 6.2:rc2 | 6.2:rc3 | 6.2:rc4 | 6.2:rc5
Debian1 product
  • linux< 6.1.11-1

3 vendors · 116 products

References

11 links
Show all 11 references