# CVE-2023-53353: accel/habanalabs: postpone mem_mgr IDR destruction to hpriv_release()

> A memory leak in the Habanalabs accelerator driver can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service when file descriptors are released while buffers are still in use.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 3 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-71906, BELL-CVE-2023-53353, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53353, GHSA-6pw4-v52h-38vj, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53353, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2023-53353, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53353, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53353

## What is CVE-2023-53353?

CVE-2023-53353 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 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:

accel/habanalabs: postpone mem_mgr IDR destruction to hpriv_release()

The memory manager IDR is currently destroyed when user releases the
file descriptor.
However, at this point the user context might be still held, and memory
buffers might be still in use.
Later on, calls to release those buffers will fail due to not finding
their handles in the IDR, leading to a memory leak.
To avoid this leak, split the IDR destruction from the memory manager
fini, and postpone it to hpriv_release() when there is no user context
and no buffers are used.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53353?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53353?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53353 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53353 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53353 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53353 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53353 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53353/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53353/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53353
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53353
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53353

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53353/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.