CVE-2023-52978 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: kprobe: Fixup kernel panic when probing an illegal position The kernel would panic when probed for an illegal position. eg: (CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_C=n) echo 'p:hello kernel_clone+0x16 a0=%a0' >> kprobe_events echo 1 > events/kprobes/hello/enable cat trace Kernel panic - not syncing: stack-protector: Kernel stack is corrupted in: __do_sys_newfstatat+0xb8/0xb8 CPU: 0 PID: 111 Comm: sh Not tainted 6.2.0-rc1-00027-g2d398fe49a4d #490 Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT) Call Trace: [<ffffffff80007268>] dump_backtrace+0x38/0x48 [<ffffffff80c5e83c>] show_stack+0x50/0x68 [<ffffffff80c6da28>] dump_stack_lvl+0x60/0x84 [<ffffffff80c6da6c>] dump_stack+0x20/0x30 [<ffffffff80c5ecf4>] panic+0x160/0x374 [<ffffffff80c6db94>] generic_handle_arch_irq+0x0/0xa8 [<ffffffff802deeb0>] sys_newstat+0x0/0x30 [<ffffffff800158c0>] sys_clone+0x20/0x30 [<ffffffff800039e8>] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x4 ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: stack-protector: Kernel stack is corrupted in: __do_sys_newfstatat+0xb8/0xb8 ]--- That is because the kprobe's ebreak instruction broke the kernel's original code. The user should guarantee the correction of the probe position, but it couldn't make the kernel panic. This patch adds arch_check_kprobe in arch_prepare_kprobe to prevent an illegal position (Such as the middle of an instruction).

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-05-10	0.21%	0.04%	-0.17%
2	2026-05-07	0.12%	0.21%	+0.10%
3	2026-05-05	—	0.12%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-05-10

0.21%

0.04%

-0.17%

2026-05-07

0.12%

0.21%

+0.10%

2026-05-05

—

0.12%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	1.8	3.6	134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

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

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

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

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

1.8

3.6

134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-52978

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2023-52978 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-52978
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52978
`suse`	medium	CVE-2023-52978 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 192 product×package rows across 34 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS, … (34 product lines)): Known Not Affected 192.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52978/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2023-52978 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 150, released 116, not-affected 97, needed 42, needs-triage 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-52978

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-52978

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.12, < 5.15.93	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.16, <= 6.1.11	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc1::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc2::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc3::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc4::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc5::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.2	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.2:rc6::::::

References for CVE-2023-52978

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/04a73558209554da17f46490ec4faaaf1b2bab68	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/12316538b1d193064109ce1a28fc9bacd43950de	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/87f48c7ccc73afc78630530d9af51f458f58cab8	Patch

URL

CVE-2023-52978 | riscv: kprobe: Fixup kernel panic when probing an illegal position

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-52978

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-52978

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-52978

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-52978

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-52978

References for CVE-2023-52978