CVE-2023-53271 ubi: Fix unreferenced object reported by kmemleak in ubi_resize_volume()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel UBI driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a 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-2023-53271?
CVE-2023-53271 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 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:
ubi: Fix unreferenced object reported by kmemleak in ubi_resize_volume()
There is a memory leaks problem reported by kmemleak:
unreferenced object 0xffff888102007a00 (size 128): comm "ubirsvol", pid 32090, jiffies 4298464136 (age 2361.231s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ................ ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff8176cecd>] __kmalloc+0x4d/0x150 [<ffffffffa02a9a36>] ubi_eba_create_table+0x76/0x170 [ubi] [<ffffffffa029764e>] ubi_resize_volume+0x1be/0xbc0 [ubi] [<ffffffffa02a3321>] ubi_cdev_ioctl+0x701/0x1850 [ubi] [<ffffffff81975d2d>] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x11d/0x170 [<ffffffff83c142a5>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<ffffffff83e0006a>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
This is due to a mismatch between create and destroy interfaces, and in detail that "new_eba_tbl" created by ubi_eba_create_table() but destroyed by kfree(), while will causing "new_eba_tbl->entries" not freed.
Fix it by replacing kfree(new_eba_tbl) with ubi_eba_destroy_table(new_eba_tbl)
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53271?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53271?
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-2023-53271 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53271 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53271, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53271, GHSA-8895-6f7g-6q4j, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53271.