CVE-2023-52438

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2024-02-20. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback

The mmap read lock is used during the shrinker's callback, which means that using alloc->vma pointer isn't safe as it can race with munmap(). As of commit dd2283f2605e ("mm: mmap: zap pages with read mmap_sem in munmap") the mmap lock is downgraded after the vma has been isolated.

I was able to reproduce this issue by manually adding some delays and triggering page reclaiming through the shrinker's debug sysfs. The following KASAN report confirms the UAF:

================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in zap_page_range_single+0x470/0x4b8 Read of size 8 at addr ffff356ed50e50f0 by task bash/478

CPU: 1 PID: 478 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.6.0-rc5-00055-g1c8b86a3799f-dirty #70 Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) Call trace: zap_page_range_single+0x470/0x4b8 binder_alloc_free_page+0x608/0xadc __list_lru_walk_one+0x130/0x3b0 list_lru_walk_node+0xc4/0x22c binder_shrink_scan+0x108/0x1dc shrinker_debugfs_scan_write+0x2b4/0x500 full_proxy_write+0xd4/0x140 vfs_write+0x1ac/0x758 ksys_write+0xf0/0x1dc __arm64_sys_write+0x6c/0x9c

Allocated by task 492: kmem_cache_alloc+0x130/0x368 vm_area_alloc+0x2c/0x190 mmap_region+0x258/0x18bc do_mmap+0x694/0xa60 vm_mmap_pgoff+0x170/0x29c ksys_mmap_pgoff+0x290/0x3a0 __arm64_sys_mmap+0xcc/0x144

Freed by task 491: kmem_cache_free+0x17c/0x3c8 vm_area_free_rcu_cb+0x74/0x98 rcu_core+0xa38/0x26d4 rcu_core_si+0x10/0x1c __do_softirq+0x2fc/0xd24

Last potentially related work creation: __call_rcu_common.constprop.0+0x6c/0xba0 call_rcu+0x10/0x1c vm_area_free+0x18/0x24 remove_vma+0xe4/0x118 do_vmi_align_munmap.isra.0+0x718/0xb5c do_vmi_munmap+0xdc/0x1fc __vm_munmap+0x10c/0x278 __arm64_sys_munmap+0x58/0x7c

Fix this issue by performing instead a vma_lookup() which will fail to find the vma that was isolated before the mmap lock downgrade. Note that this option has better performance than upgrading to a mmap write lock which would increase contention. Plus, mmap_write_trylock() has been recently removed anyway.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(medium)
EG Risk
35(Track)
EG Risk 35/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
22%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 20, 2024

Last Modified

August 5, 2026

Advisory Details (7)

Auto-updated Aug 4, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f489c2067c5824528212b0fc18b28d51332d906
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e074686e993ff1be5f21b085a3b1b4275ccd5727
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a49087ab93508b60d9b8add91707a22dda832869
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9fa04c93f24138747807fe75b5591bb680098f56
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8ad4d580e8aff8de2a4d57c5930fcc29f1ffd4a6
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c8c1158ffb007197f31f9d9170cf13e4f34cbb5c
generic

binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a53e15e592b4dcc91c3a3b8514e484a0bdbc53a3

Patch Availability(9)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulinux-tools-oem-22.04c (6.1.0.1035.36) @ jammy2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-virtual-hwe-20.04-edge (5.15.0.102.99) @ jammy2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-virtual-hwe-18.04-edge (5.4.0.176.174) @ focal2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-virtual-hwe-22.04-edge (6.5.0.27.27) @ mantic2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-raspi-nolpae (6.5.0.1014.15) @ mantic2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-iot (5.4.0.1034.32) @ focal2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-aws-lts-22.04 (5.15.0.1057.58) @ jammy2026-05-24ubuntu
ubuntulinux-xilinx-zynqmp-tools-5.4.0-1041 (5.4.0-1041.45) @ focal2026-05-24ubuntu
linuxKernel @ 5.4.268—osv

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(8)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 16× in last 7d / 49× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 125 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-08-07 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
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  5. 2026-08-05 09:46 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-08-05 09:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
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  8. 2026-08-04 12:25 UTCVendor advisory
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  11. 2026-08-04 09:55 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-08-04 09:55 UTCVendor advisory
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  1. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-52438?
CVE-2023-52438 is a high vulnerability published on February 20, 2024. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: binder: fix use-after-free in shinker's callback The mmap read lock is used during the shrinker's callback, which means that using alloc->vma pointer isn't safe as it can race with munmap(). As of commit dd2283f2605e ("mm: mmap:…
When was CVE-2023-52438 disclosed?
CVE-2023-52438 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 20, 2024, with the most recent update on August 5, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2023-52438 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-52438 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 78.3% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-52438?
CVE-2023-52438 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2023-52438?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2023-52438, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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