CVE-2023-54171 tracing: Fix memory leak of iter->temp when reading trace_pipe
A memory leak in the Linux kernel tracing subsystem allows local attackers to exhaust system memory by repeatedly reading trace_pipe, causing 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-2023-54171?
CVE-2023-54171 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:
tracing: Fix memory leak of iter->temp when reading trace_pipe
kmemleak reports: unreferenced object 0xffff88814d14e200 (size 256): comm "cat", pid 336, jiffies 4294871818 (age 779.490s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 04 00 01 03 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0c d8 c8 9b ff ff ff ff 04 5a ca 9b ff ff ff ff .........Z...... backtrace: [<ffffffff9bdff18f>] __kmalloc+0x4f/0x140 [<ffffffff9bc9238b>] trace_find_next_entry+0xbb/0x1d0 [<ffffffff9bc9caef>] trace_print_lat_context+0xaf/0x4e0 [<ffffffff9bc94490>] print_trace_line+0x3e0/0x950 [<ffffffff9bc95499>] tracing_read_pipe+0x2d9/0x5a0 [<ffffffff9bf03a43>] vfs_read+0x143/0x520 [<ffffffff9bf04c2d>] ksys_read+0xbd/0x160 [<ffffffff9d0f0edf>] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [<ffffffff9d2000aa>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8
when reading file 'trace_pipe', 'iter->temp' is allocated or relocated in trace_find_next_entry() but not freed before 'trace_pipe' is closed.
To fix it, free 'iter->temp' in tracing_release_pipe().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54171?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54171?
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-2023-54171 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54171 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54171, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54171, GHSA-rgpm-wqmc-fmj4, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54171.