CVE-2023-53415 USB: dwc3: fix memory leak with using debugfs_lookup()

What is CVE-2023-53415?

CVE-2023-53415 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

USB: dwc3: fix memory leak with using debugfs_lookup()

When calling debugfs_lookup() the result must have dput() called on it, otherwise the memory will leak over time. To make things simpler, just call debugfs_lookup_and_remove() instead which handles all of the logic at once.

Note, the root dentry for the debugfs directory for the device needs to be saved so we don't have to keep looking it up, which required a bit more refactoring to properly create and remove it when needed.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53415?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53415?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2023-53415 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53415 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-2023-53415, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53415, GHSA-gw7v-q6j5-h9mv, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53415, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53415.