# CVE-2023-52501: ring-buffer: Do not attempt to read past "commit"

> A flaw in the Linux kernel ring buffer allows out-of-bounds reads, potentially causing denial of service or information disclosure.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Mar 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52501, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52501, GHSA-jfc7-9f46-xvqw, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52501

## What is CVE-2023-52501?

CVE-2023-52501 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 Mar 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

ring-buffer: Do not attempt to read past "commit"

When iterating over the ring buffer while the ring buffer is active, the
writer can corrupt the reader. There's barriers to help detect this and
handle it, but that code missed the case where the last event was at the
very end of the page and has only 4 bytes left.

The checks to detect the corruption by the writer to reads needs to see the
length of the event. If the length in the first 4 bytes is zero then the
length is stored in the second 4 bytes. But if the writer is in the process
of updating that code, there's a small window where the length in the first
4 bytes could be zero even though the length is only 4 bytes. That will
cause rb_event_length() to read the next 4 bytes which could happen to be off the
allocated page.

To protect against this, fail immediately if the next event pointer is
less than 8 bytes from the end of the commit (last byte of data), as all
events must be a minimum of 8 bytes anyway.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52501?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52501?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52501 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52501 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52501 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52501 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 Mar 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52501 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52501/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52501/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52501
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52501
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52501

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52501/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.