# CVE-2023-53511: io_uring: fix fget leak when fs don't support nowait buffered read

> A file descriptor leak in the Linux kernel io_uring subsystem can cause unmount failures and resource exhaustion, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** 1 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53511, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53511, GHSA-m97q-c3xf-55xf, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53511

## What is CVE-2023-53511?

CVE-2023-53511 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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:

io_uring: fix fget leak when fs don't support nowait buffered read

Heming reported a BUG when using io_uring doing link-cp on ocfs2. [1]

Do the following steps can reproduce this BUG:
mount -t ocfs2 /dev/vdc /mnt/ocfs2
cp testfile /mnt/ocfs2/
./link-cp /mnt/ocfs2/testfile /mnt/ocfs2/testfile.1
umount /mnt/ocfs2

Then umount will fail, and it outputs:
umount: /mnt/ocfs2: target is busy.

While tracing umount, it blames mnt_get_count() not return as expected.
Do a deep investigation for fget()/fput() on related code flow, I've
finally found that fget() leaks since ocfs2 doesn't support nowait
buffered read.

io_issue_sqe
|-io_assign_file  // do fget() first
  |-io_read
  |-io_iter_do_read
    |-ocfs2_file_read_iter  // return -EOPNOTSUPP
  |-kiocb_done
    |-io_rw_done
      |-__io_complete_rw_common  // set REQ_F_REISSUE
    |-io_resubmit_prep
      |-io_req_prep_async  // override req->file, leak happens

This was introduced by commit a196c78b5443 in v5.18. Fix it by don't
re-assign req->file if it has already been assigned.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/ocfs2-devel/ab580a75-91c8-d68a-3455-40361be1bfa8@linux.alibaba.com/T/#t

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53511?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53511?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53511 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53511 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-2023-53511 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53511 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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-2023-53511 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-2023-53511/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53511/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53511
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53511
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53511

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53511/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.