Linux Kernel up to 5.10.187/5.15.120/6.1.39/6.4.4 tracing trace_find_next_entry memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.187/5.15.120/6.1.39/6.4.4. This impacts the function trace_find_next_entry of the component tracing. The manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2023-54171. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.187/5.15.120/6.1.39/6.4.4. Affected is the function trace_find_next_entry of the component tracing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Fix memory leak of iter->temp when reading trace_pipe kmemleak reports: unreferenced object 0xffff88814d14e200 (size 256): comm "cat", pid 336, jiffies 4294871818 (age 779.490s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 04 00 01 03 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0c d8 c8 9b ff ff ff ff 04 5a ca 9b ff ff ff ff .........Z...... backtrace: [<ffffffff9bdff18f>] __kmalloc+0x4f/0x140 [<ffffffff9bc9238b>] trace_find_next_entry+0xbb/0x1d0 [<ffffffff9bc9caef>] trace_print_lat_context+0xaf/0x4e0 [<ffffffff9bc94490>] print_trace_line+0x3e0/0x950 [<ffffffff9bc95499>] tracing_read_pipe+0x2d9/0x5a0 [<ffffffff9bf03a43>] vfs_read+0x143/0x520 [<ffffffff9bf04c2d>] ksys_read+0xbd/0x160 [<ffffffff9d0f0edf>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [<ffffffff9d2000aa>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8 when reading file 'trace_pipe', 'iter->temp' is allocated or relocated in trace_find_next_entry() but not freed before 'trace_pipe' is closed. To fix it, free 'iter->temp' in tracing_release_pipe().

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-54171 since 12/30/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 319448 (EulerOS Virtualization 2.13.1 : kernel (EulerOS-SA-2026-2132)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.40 or 6.4.5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 1a1e793e021d75cd0accd8f329ec9456e5cd105e/954792db9f61b6c0b8a94b8831fed5f146014029/be970e22c53d5572b2795b79da9716ada937023b/3f42d57a76e7e96585f08855554e002218cbca0c/d5a821896360cc8b93a15bd888fabc858c038dc0 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 Tenable (319448). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.187
• 5.15.120
• 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
• 6.4.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.4.2
• 6.4.3
• 6.4.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Discussion