CVE-2023-53181: dma-buf/dma-resv: Stop leaking on krealloc() failure

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-09-15 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dma-buf/dma-resv: Stop leaking on krealloc() failure Currently dma_resv_get_fences() will leak the previously allocated array if the fence iteration got restarted and the krealloc_array() fails. Free the old array by hand, and make sure we still clear the returned *fences so the caller won't end up accessing freed memory. Some (but not all) of the callers of dma_resv_get_fences() seem to still trawl through the array even when dma_resv_get_fences() failed. And let's zero out *num_fences as well for good measure.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.16 before 6.1.42; from 6.2 before 6.4.7; 6.5-rc1, 6.5-rc2 — fixed in 6.1.42, 6.4.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.1.42, 6.4.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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