CVE-2023-53435 cassini: Fix a memory leak in the error handling path of cas_init_one()

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A memory leak in the Cassini network driver's error handling path 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-2023-53435?

CVE-2023-53435 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:

cassini: Fix a memory leak in the error handling path of cas_init_one()

cas_saturn_firmware_init() allocates some memory using vmalloc(). This memory is freed in the .remove() function but not it the error handling path of the probe.

Add the missing vfree() to avoid a memory leak, should an error occur.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53435?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53435?

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-2023-53435 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53435 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53435, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53435, GHSA-qjh2-vwwm-cqj6, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53435.

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