CVE-2023-52989 | firewire: fix memory leak for payload of request subaction to IEC 61883-1 FCP region

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: firewire: fix memory leak for payload of request subaction to IEC 61883-1 FCP region This patch is fix for Linux kernel v2.6.33 or later. For request subaction to IEC 61883-1 FCP region, Linux FireWire subsystem have had an issue of use-after-free. The subsystem allows multiple user space listeners to the region, while data of the payload was likely released before the listeners execute read(2) to access to it for copying to user space. The issue was fixed by a commit 281e20323ab7 ("firewire: core: fix use-after-free regression in FCP handler"). The object of payload is duplicated in kernel space for each listener. When the listener executes ioctl(2) with FW_CDEV_IOC_SEND_RESPONSE request, the object is going to be released. However, it causes memory leak since the commit relies on call of release_request() in drivers/firewire/core-cdev.c. Against the expectation, the function is never called due to the design of release_client_resource(). The function delegates release task to caller when called with non-NULL fourth argument. The implementation of ioctl_send_response() is the case. It should release the object explicitly. This commit fixes the bug.

Published: 2025-03-27 Last update: 2025-10-01 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-52989 is rated Low Risk (22.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-52989

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-07 0.06% 0.01% -0.05%
2 2026-01-21 0.03% 0.06% +0.03%
3 2025-03-28 0.03%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-52989

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

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

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-52989

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-52989

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-52989 not yet assigned 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-2023-52989
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52989
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52989/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-52989 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, released 154, ignored 149, not-affected 98, needed 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-52989

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-52989

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 2.6.33, < 4.14.306 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.15, < 4.19.273 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.232 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.168 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 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-2023-52989

cvelogic Threat Intelligence