# CVE-2023-52517: spi: sun6i: fix race between DMA RX transfer completion and RX FIFO drain

> A race condition in the Linux kernel sun6i SPI driver allows data corruption or system instability during DMA transfers.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52517, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52517, GHSA-r867-j6v8-hv77, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-52517, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52517

## What is CVE-2023-52517?

CVE-2023-52517 is a high-severity 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:

spi: sun6i: fix race between DMA RX transfer completion and RX FIFO drain

Previously the transfer complete IRQ immediately drained to RX FIFO to
read any data remaining in FIFO to the RX buffer. This behaviour is
correct when dealing with SPI in interrupt mode. However in DMA mode the
transfer complete interrupt still fires as soon as all bytes to be
transferred have been stored in the FIFO. At that point data in the FIFO
still needs to be picked up by the DMA engine. Thus the drain procedure
and DMA engine end up racing to read from RX FIFO, corrupting any data
read. Additionally the RX buffer pointer is never adjusted according to
DMA progress in DMA mode, thus calling the RX FIFO drain procedure in DMA
mode is a bug.
Fix corruptions in DMA RX mode by draining RX FIFO only in interrupt mode.
Also wait for completion of RX DMA when in DMA mode before returning to
ensure all data has been copied to the supplied memory buffer.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52517?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52517?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52517 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52517 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-2023-52517 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52517 is a high-severity 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-2023-52517 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-2023-52517/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52517/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52517
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52517
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52517

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52517/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.