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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2023-53441 json

bpf: cpumap: Fix memory leak in cpu_map_update_elem

published 2025-09-18 13 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-29867

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: cpumap: Fix memory leak in cpu_map_update_elem

Syzkaller reported a memory leak as follows:

BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xff110001198ef748 (size 192): comm "syz-executor.3", pid 17672, jiffies 4298118891 (age 9.906s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 4a 19 00 00 80 ad e3 e4 fe ff c0 00 ....J........... 00 b2 d3 0c 01 00 11 ff 28 f5 8e 19 01 00 11 ff ........(....... backtrace: [<ffffffffadd28087>] __cpu_map_entry_alloc+0xf7/0xb00 [<ffffffffadd28d8e>] cpu_map_update_elem+0x2fe/0x3d0 [<ffffffffadc6d0fd>] bpf_map_update_value.isra.0+0x2bd/0x520 [<ffffffffadc7349b>] map_update_elem+0x4cb/0x720 [<ffffffffadc7d983>] __se_sys_bpf+0x8c3/0xb90 [<ffffffffb029cc80>] do_syscall_64+0x30/0x40 [<ffffffffb0400099>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x61/0xc6

BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xff110001198ef528 (size 192): comm "syz-executor.3", pid 17672, jiffies 4298118891 (age 9.906s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffffadd281f0>] __cpu_map_entry_alloc+0x260/0xb00 [<ffffffffadd28d8e>] cpu_map_update_elem+0x2fe/0x3d0 [<ffffffffadc6d0fd>] bpf_map_update_value.isra.0+0x2bd/0x520 [<ffffffffadc7349b>] map_update_elem+0x4cb/0x720 [<ffffffffadc7d983>] __se_sys_bpf+0x8c3/0xb90 [<ffffffffb029cc80>] do_syscall_64+0x30/0x40 [<ffffffffb0400099>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x61/0xc6

BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xff1100010fd93d68 (size 8): comm "syz-executor.3", pid 17672, jiffies 4298118891 (age 9.906s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........ backtrace: [<ffffffffade5db3e>] kvmalloc_node+0x11e/0x170 [<ffffffffadd28280>] __cpu_map_entry_alloc+0x2f0/0xb00 [<ffffffffadd28d8e>] cpu_map_update_elem+0x2fe/0x3d0 [<ffffffffadc6d0fd>] bpf_map_update_value.isra.0+0x2bd/0x520 [<ffffffffadc7349b>] map_update_elem+0x4cb/0x720 [<ffffffffadc7d983>] __se_sys_bpf+0x8c3/0xb90 [<ffffffffb029cc80>] do_syscall_64+0x30/0x40 [<ffffffffb0400099>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x61/0xc6

In the cpu_map_update_elem flow, when kthread_stop is called before calling the threadfn of rcpu->kthread, since the KTHREAD_SHOULD_STOP bit of kthread has been set by kthread_stop, the threadfn of rcpu->kthread will never be executed, and rcpu->refcnt will never be 0, which will lead to the allocated rcpu, rcpu->queue and rcpu->queue->queue cannot be released.

Calling kthread_stop before executing kthread's threadfn will return -EINTR. We can complete the release of memory resources in this state.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.121, 6.1.40, 6.4.5, 6.5
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.52-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.4.11-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53441

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-86.96
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1047.52
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.52
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.49
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1040.43
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.49
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1049.56
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1030.35

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53441

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rv RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • rtla RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • bpftool RHEL 9 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • libperf RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-rt RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4
  • kernel-64k RHEL 9 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4

red hat advisories RHSA-2024:2394RHSA-2024:3138

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1SUSE-SU-2025:4132-1SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1SUSE-SU-2025:20898-1SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1

  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-553.123.1.el8_10.cloud.0.1

rocky linux advisories RXSA-2024:3138

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-53441 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: bpf: cpumap: Fix memory leak in cpu_map_update_elem

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) rv 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, rtla 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel 4.18.0-553.el8_10, bpftool 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-core 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-tools 4.18.0-553.el8_10, python3-perf 4.18.0-553.el8_10, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:3138
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool 7.3.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-64k 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-tools 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, python3-perf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +28 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-553.el8_10, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-553.el8_10
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:3138
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) libperf 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 9) kernel-rt 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-modules-core 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, kernel-rt-debug-modules 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2024:2394
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
9 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.