Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2023-53396

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ubifs: Fix memory leak in do_rename If renaming a file in an encrypted directory, function fscrypt_setup_filename allocates memory for a file name. This name is never used, and before returning to the caller the memory for it is not freed. When running kmemleak on it we see that it is registered as a leak. The report below is triggered by a simple program 'rename' that renames a file in an encrypted directory: unreferenced object 0xffff888101502840 (size 32): comm "rename", pid 9404, jiffies 4302582475 (age 435.735s) backtrace: __kmem_cache_alloc_node __kmalloc fscrypt_setup_filename do_rename ubifs_rename vfs_rename do_renameat2 To fix this we can remove the call to fscrypt_setup_filename as it's not needed.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.001 (3.4th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 3rd percentile — 3.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2023-53396: held from 0.001 to 0.001.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.001 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 278d9a243635f26c05ad95dcf9c5a593b9e04dc6, 5.17.2, 6.3.2
  • Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53396?
CVE-2023-53396 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-09-18.
How severe is CVE-2023-53396?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.