Linux Kernel up to 5.10.164/5.15.89/6.1.7 ieee80211_if_add memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.164/5.15.89/6.1.7. The impacted element is the function ieee80211_if_add. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2023-53028. No exploit is available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.164/5.15.89/6.1.7. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function ieee80211_if_add. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "wifi: mac80211: fix memory leak in ieee80211_if_add()" This reverts commit 13e5afd3d773c6fc6ca2b89027befaaaa1ea7293. ieee80211_if_free() is already called from free_netdev(ndev) because ndev->priv_destructor == ieee80211_if_free syzbot reported: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000004: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000020-0x0000000000000027] CPU: 0 PID: 10041 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc2-syzkaller-00388-g55b98837e37d #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 10/26/2022 RIP: 0010:pcpu_get_page_chunk mm/percpu.c:262 [inline] RIP: 0010:pcpu_chunk_addr_search mm/percpu.c:1619 [inline] RIP: 0010:free_percpu mm/percpu.c:2271 [inline] RIP: 0010:free_percpu+0x186/0x10f0 mm/percpu.c:2254 Code: 80 3c 02 00 0f 85 f5 0e 00 00 48 8b 3b 48 01 ef e8 cf b3 0b 00 48 ba 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 8d 78 20 48 89 f9 48 c1 e9 03 3c 11 00 0f 85 3b 0e 00 00 48 8b 58 20 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc RSP: 0018:ffffc90004ba7068 EFLAGS: 00010002 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88823ffe2b80 RCX: 0000000000000004 RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: ffffffff81c1f4e7 RDI: 0000000000000020 RBP: ffffe8fffe8fc220 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 1ffffffff2179ab2 R12: ffff8880b983d000 R13: 0000000000000003 R14: 0000607f450fc220 R15: ffff88823ffe2988 FS: 00007fcb349de700(0000) GS:ffff8880b9800000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000001b32220000 CR3: 000000004914f000 CR4: 00000000003506f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: netdev_run_todo+0x6bf/0x1100 net/core/dev.c:10352 ieee80211_register_hw+0x2663/0x4040 net/mac80211/main.c:1411 mac80211_hwsim_new_radio+0x2537/0x4d80 drivers/net/wireless/mac80211_hwsim.c:4583 hwsim_new_radio_nl+0xa09/0x10f0 drivers/net/wireless/mac80211_hwsim.c:5176 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.0+0x1e6/0x2d0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:968 genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1048 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x4ff/0x7e0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1065 netlink_rcv_skb+0x165/0x440 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2564 genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1076 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1330 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x547/0x7f0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1356 netlink_sendmsg+0x91b/0xe10 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1932 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:714 [inline] sock_sendmsg+0xd3/0x120 net/socket.c:734 ____sys_sendmsg+0x712/0x8c0 net/socket.c:2476 ___sys_sendmsg+0x110/0x1b0 net/socket.c:2530 __sys_sendmsg+0xf7/0x1c0 net/socket.c:2559 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53028 since 03/27/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 5.10.165, 5.15.90 or 6.1.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 71e5cd1018d345e649e63f74a56c1897f99db7e9/982c8b1e95c088f5d8f65967ec25be66e961401c/effecd8d116d3d3a28b4f628e61bba8d318fdfcf/80f8a66dede0a4b4e9e846765a97809c6fe49ce5 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0649). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.164
• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7
• 5.15.8
• 5.15.9
• 5.15.10
• 5.15.11
• 5.15.12
• 5.15.13
• 5.15.14
• 5.15.15
• 5.15.16
• 5.15.17
• 5.15.18
• 5.15.19
• 5.15.20
• 5.15.21
• 5.15.22
• 5.15.23
• 5.15.24
• 5.15.25
• 5.15.26
• 5.15.27
• 5.15.28
• 5.15.29
• 5.15.30
• 5.15.31
• 5.15.32
• 5.15.33
• 5.15.34
• 5.15.35
• 5.15.36
• 5.15.37
• 5.15.38
• 5.15.39
• 5.15.40
• 5.15.41
• 5.15.42
• 5.15.43
• 5.15.44
• 5.15.45
• 5.15.46
• 5.15.47
• 5.15.48
• 5.15.49
• 5.15.50
• 5.15.51
• 5.15.52
• 5.15.53
• 5.15.54
• 5.15.55
• 5.15.56
• 5.15.57
• 5.15.58
• 5.15.59
• 5.15.60
• 5.15.61
• 5.15.62
• 5.15.63
• 5.15.64
• 5.15.65
• 5.15.66
• 5.15.67
• 5.15.68
• 5.15.69
• 5.15.70
• 5.15.71
• 5.15.72
• 5.15.73
• 5.15.74
• 5.15.75
• 5.15.76
• 5.15.77
• 5.15.78
• 5.15.79
• 5.15.80
• 5.15.81
• 5.15.82
• 5.15.83
• 5.15.84
• 5.15.85
• 5.15.86
• 5.15.87
• 5.15.88
• 5.15.89
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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