What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-53403: time/debug: Fix memory leak with using debugfs_lookup()

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2025-09-18 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: time/debug: Fix memory leak with using debugfs_lookup() When calling debugfs_lookup() the result must have dput() called on it, otherwise the memory will leak over time. To make things simpler, just call debugfs_lookup_and_remove() instead which handles all of the logic at once.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: before 5.15.99; from 5.16 before 6.1.16; from 6.2 before 6.2.3 — fixed in 5.15.99, 6.1.16, 6.2.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.99, 6.1.16, 6.2.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15cffd01ed80e3506e29ba9f441e2358413b7317
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5b268d8abaec6cbd4bd70d062e769098d96670aa
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b588b42d077ce93c98704b41003bcec6a564b738
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dc39fbd865a9819db4b622f610ba17b2ebc294f4

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