Double Free in Linux

CVE-2023-53596

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drivers: base: Free devm resources when unregistering a device In the current code, devres_release_all() only gets called if the device has a bus and has been probed. This leads to issues when using bus-less or driver-less devices where the device might never get freed if a managed resource holds a reference to the device. This is happening in the DRM framework for example. We should thus call devres_release_all() in the device_del() function to make sure that the device-managed actions are properly executed when the device is unregistered, even if it has neither a bus nor a driver. This is effectively the same change than commit 2f8d16a996da ("devres: release resources on device_del()") that got reverted by commit a525a3ddeaca ("driver core: free devres in device_release") over memory leaks concerns. This patch effectively combines the two commits mentioned above to release the resources both on device_del() and device_release() and get the best of both worlds.

Vulnerability class: Double Free

EPSS: 0.001 (4.0th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53596?
CVE-2023-53596 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Double Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-10-04.
How severe is CVE-2023-53596?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-53596 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.