# CVE-2023-53696: scsi: qla2xxx: Fix memory leak in qla2x00_probe_one()

> A memory leak in the qla2xxx SCSI driver allows local attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting kernel memory during adapter initialization failures.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 22 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53696, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53696, GHSA-hh3x-pv67-6v62, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53696, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53696

## What is CVE-2023-53696?

CVE-2023-53696 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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:

scsi: qla2xxx: Fix memory leak in qla2x00_probe_one()

There is a memory leak reported by kmemleak:

  unreferenced object 0xffffc900003f0000 (size 12288):
    comm "modprobe", pid 19117, jiffies 4299751452 (age 42490.264s)
    hex dump (first 32 bytes):
      00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
      00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
    backtrace:
      [<00000000629261a8>] __vmalloc_node_range+0xe56/0x1110
      [<0000000001906886>] __vmalloc_node+0xbd/0x150
      [<000000005bb4dc34>] vmalloc+0x25/0x30
      [<00000000a2dc1194>] qla2x00_create_host+0x7a0/0xe30 [qla2xxx]
      [<0000000062b14b47>] qla2x00_probe_one+0x2eb8/0xd160 [qla2xxx]
      [<00000000641ccc04>] local_pci_probe+0xeb/0x1a0

The root cause is traced to an error-handling path in qla2x00_probe_one()
when the adapter "base_vha" initialize failed. The fab_scan_rp "scan.l" is
used to record the port information and it is allocated in
qla2x00_create_host(). However, it is not released in the error handling
path "probe_failed".

Fix this by freeing the memory of "scan.l" when an error occurs in the
adapter initialization process.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53696?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53696?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53696 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53696 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53696 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53696 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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-2023-53696 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53696/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53696/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53696
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53696
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53696

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53696/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.