Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2023-53606
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: clean up potential nfsd_file refcount leaks in COPY codepath There are two different flavors of the nfsd4_copy struct. One is embedded in the compound and is used directly in synchronous copies. The other is dynamically allocated, refcounted and tracked in the client struture. For the embedded one, the cleanup just involves releasing any nfsd_files held on its behalf. For the async one, the cleanup is a bit more involved, and we need to dequeue it from lists, unhash it, etc. There is at least one potential refcount leak in this code now. If the kthread_create call fails, then both the src and dst nfsd_files in the original nfsd4_copy object are leaked. The cleanup in this codepath is also sort of weird. In the async copy case, we'll have up to four nfsd_file references (src and dst for both flavors of copy structure). They are both put at the end of nfsd4_do_async_copy, even though the ones held on behalf of the embedded one outlive that structure. Change it so that we always clean up the nfsd_file refs held by the embedded copy structure before nfsd4_copy returns. Rework cleanup_async_copy to handle both inter and intra copies. Eliminate nfsd4_cleanup_intra_ssc since it now becomes a no-op.
EPSS: 0.001 (3.4th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions e0639dc5805a9d4faaa2c07ad98fa853b9529dd3, 4.20, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2023-53606?
- CVE-2023-53606 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2025-10-04.
- How severe is CVE-2023-53606?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2023-53606 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.