CVE-2023-53611 ipmi_si: fix a memleak in try_smi_init()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel IPMI driver allows attackers to cause 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-2023-53611?
CVE-2023-53611 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 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:
ipmi_si: fix a memleak in try_smi_init()
Kmemleak reported the following leak info in try_smi_init():
unreferenced object 0xffff00018ecf9400 (size 1024): comm "modprobe", pid 2707763, jiffies 4300851415 (age 773.308s) backtrace: [<000000004ca5b312>] __kmalloc+0x4b8/0x7b0 [<00000000953b1072>] try_smi_init+0x148/0x5dc [ipmi_si] [<000000006460d325>] 0xffff800081b10148 [<0000000039206ea5>] do_one_initcall+0x64/0x2a4 [<00000000601399ce>] do_init_module+0x50/0x300 [<000000003c12ba3c>] load_module+0x7a8/0x9e0 [<00000000c246fffe>] __se_sys_init_module+0x104/0x180 [<00000000eea99093>] __arm64_sys_init_module+0x24/0x30 [<0000000021b1ef87>] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x94/0x250 [<0000000070f4f8b7>] do_el0_svc+0x48/0xe0 [<000000005a05337f>] el0_svc+0x24/0x3c [<000000005eb248d6>] el0_sync_handler+0x160/0x164 [<0000000030a59039>] el0_sync+0x160/0x180
The problem was that when an error occurred before handlers registration and after allocating `new_smi->si_sm`, the variable wouldn't be freed in the error handling afterwards since `shutdown_smi()` hadn't been registered yet. Fix it by adding a `kfree()` in the error handling path in `try_smi_init()`.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53611?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2023-53611?
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-2023-53611 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53611 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53611, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53611, GHSA-7r62-fw3j-xjqf, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53611.