CVE-2023-53435
BaseFortify
Publication date: 2025-09-18
Last updated on: 2025-12-11
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | From 2.6.28 (inc) to 4.14.316 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 4.15 (inc) to 4.19.284 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 4.20 (inc) to 5.4.244 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 5.5 (inc) to 5.10.181 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 5.11 (inc) to 5.15.113 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 5.16 (inc) to 6.1.30 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | From 6.2 (inc) to 6.3.4 (exc) |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.4 |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.4 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-401 | The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability is a memory leak in the Linux kernel related to the cassini driver. Specifically, in the cas_saturn_firmware_init() function, memory is allocated using vmalloc(), but if an error occurs during initialization, this memory is not freed properly because the error handling path is missing a call to vfree(). This causes a memory leak until the .remove() function is called, which normally frees the memory.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
The memory leak caused by this vulnerability can lead to increased memory usage over time if errors occur during the initialization of the cassini driver. This can degrade system performance and potentially cause resource exhaustion, leading to instability or crashes in the affected Linux system.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
To mitigate this vulnerability, update the Linux kernel to a version where the memory leak in the cas_init_one() error handling path has been fixed. This involves applying the patch that adds the missing vfree() call to properly free allocated memory in error cases.