CVE-2023-54115 pcmcia: rsrc_nonstatic: Fix memory leak in nonstatic_release_resource_db()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel PCMCIA driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-54115?
CVE-2023-54115 is a memory corruption 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:
pcmcia: rsrc_nonstatic: Fix memory leak in nonstatic_release_resource_db()
When nonstatic_release_resource_db() frees all resources associated with an PCMCIA socket, it forgets to free socket_data too, causing a memory leak observable with kmemleak:
unreferenced object 0xc28d1000 (size 64): comm "systemd-udevd", pid 297, jiffies 4294898478 (age 194.484s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f0 85 0e c3 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 0c 10 8d c2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffda4245>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x2d7/0x4a0 [<7e51f0c8>] kmalloc_trace+0x31/0xa4 [<d52b4ca0>] nonstatic_init+0x24/0x1a4 [pcmcia_rsrc] [<a2f13e08>] pcmcia_register_socket+0x200/0x35c [pcmcia_core] [<a728be1b>] yenta_probe+0x4d8/0xa70 [yenta_socket] [<c48fac39>] pci_device_probe+0x99/0x194 [<84b7c690>] really_probe+0x181/0x45c [<8060fe6e>] __driver_probe_device+0x75/0x1f4 [<b9b76f43>] driver_probe_device+0x28/0xac [<648b766f>] __driver_attach+0xeb/0x1e4 [<6e9659eb>] bus_for_each_dev+0x61/0xb4 [<25a669f3>] driver_attach+0x1e/0x28 [<d8671d6b>] bus_add_driver+0x102/0x20c [<df0d323c>] driver_register+0x5b/0x120 [<942cd8a4>] __pci_register_driver+0x44/0x4c [<e536027e>] __UNIQUE_ID___addressable_cleanup_module188+0x1c/0xfffff000 [iTCO_vendor_support]
Fix this by freeing socket_data too.
Tested on a Acer Travelmate 4002WLMi by manually binding/unbinding the yenta_cardbus driver (yenta_socket).
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54115?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54115?
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-2023-54115 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54115 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54115, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54115, GHSA-q8gv-44j3-p55q, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54115.