What is CVE-2023-53181?

CVE-2023-53181 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 5.16 onward and patched in 6.1.42, 6.4.7 and 6.5. CVE-2023-53181 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53181?

CVE-2023-53181 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53181?

Yes, CVE-2023-53181 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.1.42, 6.4.7 and 6.5. If you are running Linux kernel 5.16 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2023-53181 actively exploited?

CVE-2023-53181 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2023-53181

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dma-buf/dma-resv: Stop leaking on krealloc() failure Currently dma_resv_get_fences() will leak the previously allocated array if the fence iteration got restarted and the krealloc_array() fails. Free the old array by hand, and make sure we still clear the returned *fences so the caller won't end up accessing freed memory. Some (but not all) of the callers of dma_resv_get_fences() seem to still trawl through the array even when dma_resv_get_fences() failed. And let's zero out *num_fences as well for good measure.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-09-15

Last modified 2025-12-02

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.16 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.1.42, 6.4.7, 6.5 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 5.16

Fixed in

✓ 6.1.42 6.1.x ✓ 6.4.7 6.4.x ✓ 6.5

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2023-53181 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/05abb3be91d8788328231ee02973ab3d47f5e3d2
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/19e7b9f1f7e1cb92a4cc53b4c064f7fb4b1f1983
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/819656cc03dec7f7f7800274dfbc8eb49f888e9f
Patch

Details

CVE ID CVE-2023-53181

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-09-15

Modified 2025-12-02

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53181?

CVE-2023-53181 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.16 onward and has been patched in 6.1.42, 6.4.7 and 6.5. CVE-2023-53181 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-53181?

CVE-2023-53181 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2023-53181?

Yes — CVE-2023-53181 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.1.42, 6.4.7 and 6.5. If you are running Linux kernel 5.16 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2023-53181 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2023-53181 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.