CVE-2023-53078 scsi: scsi_dh_alua: Fix memleak for 'qdata' in alua_activate()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel SCSI ALUA device handler can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-53078?
CVE-2023-53078 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
scsi: scsi_dh_alua: Fix memleak for 'qdata' in alua_activate()
If alua_rtpg_queue() failed from alua_activate(), then 'qdata' is not freed, which will cause following memleak:
unreferenced object 0xffff88810b2c6980 (size 32): comm "kworker/u16:2", pid 635322, jiffies 4355801099 (age 1216426.076s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 40 39 24 c1 ff ff ff ff 00 f8 ea 0a 81 88 ff ff @9$............. backtrace: [<0000000098f3a26d>] alua_activate+0xb0/0x320 [<000000003b529641>] scsi_dh_activate+0xb2/0x140 [<000000007b296db3>] activate_path_work+0xc6/0xe0 [dm_multipath] [<000000007adc9ace>] process_one_work+0x3c5/0x730 [<00000000c457a985>] worker_thread+0x93/0x650 [<00000000cb80e628>] kthread+0x1ba/0x210 [<00000000a1e61077>] ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30
Fix the problem by freeing 'qdata' in error path.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53078?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53078?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2023-53078 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53078 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53078, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53078, GHSA-xjm5-mrh5-2hc5, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53078.