CVE-2023-53174 scsi: core: Fix possible memory leak if device_add() fails

What is CVE-2023-53174?

CVE-2023-53174 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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: core: Fix possible memory leak if device_add() fails

If device_add() returns error, the name allocated by dev_set_name() needs be freed. As the comment of device_add() says, put_device() should be used to decrease the reference count in the error path. So fix this by calling put_device(), then the name can be freed in kobject_cleanp().

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53174?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53174?

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-2023-53174 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53174 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53174, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53174, GHSA-23fg-w3cv-jf6w, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53174.