Linux Kernel up to 5.15.149/6.1.41/6.4.6 cifs memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.149/6.1.41/6.4.6. This impacts an unknown function of the component cifs. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-53597. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.149/6.1.41/6.4.6. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown code of the component cifs. 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: cifs: fix mid leak during reconnection after timeout threshold When the number of responses with status of STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT exceeds a specified threshold (NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT), we reconnect the connection. But we do not return the mid, or the credits returned for the mid, or reduce the number of in-flight requests. This bug could result in the server->in_flight count to go bad, and also cause a leak in the mids. This change moves the check to a few lines below where the response is decrypted, even of the response is read from the transform header. This way, the code for returning the mids can be reused. Also, the cifs_reconnect was reconnecting just the transport connection before. In case of multi-channel, this may not be what we want to do after several timeouts. Changed that to reconnect the session and the tree too. Also renamed NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT to a more appropriate name MAX_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53597 since 10/04/2025. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 279908 (SUSE SLES12 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:4515-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.150, 6.1.42 or 6.4.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch df31d05f0678cdd0796ea19983a2b93edca18bb0/c55901d381a22300c9922170e59704059f50977b/57d25e9905c71133e201f6d06b56a3403d4ad433/69cba9d3c1284e0838ae408830a02c4a063104bc 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 (279908), EUVD (EUVD-2023-60011) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2194). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.149
• 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
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.1.31
• 6.1.32
• 6.1.33
• 6.1.34
• 6.1.35
• 6.1.36
• 6.1.37
• 6.1.38
• 6.1.39
• 6.1.40
• 6.1.41
• 6.4.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.4.2
• 6.4.3
• 6.4.4
• 6.4.5
• 6.4.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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