Linux Kernel up to 5.15.110/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1 wifi __kmalloc memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.110/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1. Affected by this issue is the function __kmalloc of the component wifi. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2023-54131. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.110/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1. This issue affects the function __kmalloc of the component wifi. 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: wifi: rt2x00: Fix memory leak when handling surveys When removing a rt2x00 device, its associated channel surveys are not freed, causing a memory leak observable with kmemleak: unreferenced object 0xffff9620f0881a00 (size 512): comm "systemd-udevd", pid 2290, jiffies 4294906974 (age 33.768s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 70 44 12 00 00 00 00 00 92 8a 00 00 00 00 00 00 pD.............. 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ab 87 01 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffffb0ed858b>] __kmalloc+0x4b/0x130 [<ffffffffc1b0f29b>] rt2800_probe_hw+0xc2b/0x1380 [rt2800lib] [<ffffffffc1a9496e>] rt2800usb_probe_hw+0xe/0x60 [rt2800usb] [<ffffffffc1ae491a>] rt2x00lib_probe_dev+0x21a/0x7d0 [rt2x00lib] [<ffffffffc1b3b83e>] rt2x00usb_probe+0x1be/0x980 [rt2x00usb] [<ffffffffc05981e2>] usb_probe_interface+0xe2/0x310 [usbcore] [<ffffffffb13be2d5>] really_probe+0x1a5/0x410 [<ffffffffb13be5c8>] __driver_probe_device+0x78/0x180 [<ffffffffb13be6fe>] driver_probe_device+0x1e/0x90 [<ffffffffb13be972>] __driver_attach+0xd2/0x1c0 [<ffffffffb13bbc57>] bus_for_each_dev+0x77/0xd0 [<ffffffffb13bd2a2>] bus_add_driver+0x112/0x210 [<ffffffffb13bfc6c>] driver_register+0x5c/0x120 [<ffffffffc0596ae8>] usb_register_driver+0x88/0x150 [usbcore] [<ffffffffb0c011c4>] do_one_initcall+0x44/0x220 [<ffffffffb0d6134c>] do_init_module+0x4c/0x220 Fix this by freeing the channel surveys on device removal. Tested with a RT3070 based USB wireless adapter.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-54131 since 12/24/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 279881 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-54131), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 or 6.3.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch eb77c0c0a17c53d83b5fe8e46490fb0a7ed9e6af/bea3f8aa999318bdffa2d17753e492f76904f0ce/494064ffd60d044c097d514917c40913d1affbca/0354bce76ed1d775904acdb4cc0bf88c5b9b5b9f/cbef9a83c51dfcb07f77cfa6ac26f53a1ea86f49 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 (279881) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2929). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.110
• 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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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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