CVE-2023-53611: ipmi_si: fix a memleak in try_smi_init()

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: 2025-10-04 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipmi_si: fix a memleak in try_smi_init() Kmemleak reported the following leak info in try_smi_init(): unreferenced object 0xffff00018ecf9400 (size 1024): comm "modprobe", pid 2707763, jiffies 4300851415 (age 773.308s) backtrace: [<000000004ca5b312>] __kmalloc+0x4b8/0x7b0 [<00000000953b1072>] try_smi_init+0x148/0x5dc [ipmi_si] [<000000006460d325>] 0xffff800081b10148 [<0000000039206ea5>] do_one_initcall+0x64/0x2a4 [<00000000601399ce>] do_init_module+0x50/0x300 [<000000003c12ba3c>] load_module+0x7a8/0x9e0 [<00000000c246fffe>] __se_sys_init_module+0x104/0x180 [<00000000eea99093>] __arm64_sys_init_module+0x24/0x30 [<0000000021b1ef87>] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x94/0x250 [<0000000070f4f8b7>] do_el0_svc+0x48/0xe0 [<000000005a05337f>] el0_svc+0x24/0x3c [<000000005eb248d6>] el0_sync_handler+0x160/0x164 [<0000000030a59039>] el0_sync+0x160/0x180 The problem was that when an error occurred before handlers registration and after allocating `new_smi->si_sm`, the variable wouldn't be freed in the error handling afterwards since `shutdown_smi()` hadn't been registered yet. Fix it by adding a `kfree()` in the error handling path in `try_smi_init()`.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 4.18 before 4.19.295; from 4.20 before 5.4.257; from 5.5 before 5.10.195; from 5.11 before 5.15.132; from 5.16 before 6.1.53; from 6.2 before 6.4.16 — fixed in 4.19.295, 5.10.195, 5.15.132, 5.4.257, 6.1.53, 6.4.16

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.19.295, 5.10.195, 5.15.132, 5.4.257. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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