Linux Kernel up to 5.15.111/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1 ubifs do_rename memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.111/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1 and classified as critical. This affects the function do_rename of the component ubifs. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-53396. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.111/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function do_rename of the component ubifs. 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: ubifs: Fix memory leak in do_rename If renaming a file in an encrypted directory, function fscrypt_setup_filename allocates memory for a file name. This name is never used, and before returning to the caller the memory for it is not freed. When running kmemleak on it we see that it is registered as a leak. The report below is triggered by a simple program 'rename' that renames a file in an encrypted directory: unreferenced object 0xffff888101502840 (size 32): comm "rename", pid 9404, jiffies 4302582475 (age 435.735s) backtrace: __kmem_cache_alloc_node __kmalloc fscrypt_setup_filename do_rename ubifs_rename vfs_rename do_renameat2 To fix this we can remove the call to fscrypt_setup_filename as it's not needed.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53396 since 09/17/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265899 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-53396), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.112, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 or 6.3.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 43b2f7d690697182beed6f71aa57b7249d3cfc9c/9f565752b328fe53c9e42b7d4e4d89a1da63d738/7e264f67b7d6580eff5c2696961039fd05c69258/517ddc0259d7a7231486bdafde8035c478bc4088/3a36d20e012903f45714df2731261fdefac900cb 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 databases at Tenable (265899) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2092). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.111
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7
• 6.2.8
• 6.2.9
• 6.2.10
• 6.2.11
• 6.2.12
• 6.2.13
• 6.2.14
• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

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