CVE-2023-53674 clk: Fix memory leak in devm_clk_notifier_register()

What is CVE-2023-53674?

CVE-2023-53674 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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:

clk: Fix memory leak in devm_clk_notifier_register()

devm_clk_notifier_register() allocates a devres resource for clk notifier but didn't register that to the device, so the notifier didn't get unregistered on device detach and the allocated resource was leaked.

Fix the issue by registering the resource through devres_add().

This issue was found with kmemleak on a Chromebook.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53674?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53674?

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-2023-53674 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53674 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-2023-53674, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53674, GHSA-wxm3-66f2-8xfm, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53674.