# CVE-2023-53997: thermal: of: fix double-free on unregistration

> A double-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel thermal subsystem allows attackers to cause denial of service or potentially execute code.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53997, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53997, GHSA-hjrg-jf9q-4c95, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53997

## What is CVE-2023-53997?

CVE-2023-53997 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Dec 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:

thermal: of: fix double-free on unregistration

Since commit 3d439b1a2ad3 ("thermal/core: Alloc-copy-free the thermal
zone parameters structure"), thermal_zone_device_register() allocates
a copy of the tzp argument and frees it when unregistering, so
thermal_of_zone_register() now ends up leaking its original tzp and
double-freeing the tzp copy. Fix this by locating tzp on stack instead.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53997?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53997?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53997 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53997 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53997 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53997 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Dec 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-2023-53997 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-2023-53997/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53997/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53997
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53997
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53997

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53997/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.