CVE-2023-53375

tracing: Free error logs of tracing instances

State
Published
Severity
5.5 Medium
Published
Sep 18, 2025
Updated
May 11, 2026
Reserved
Sep 17, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

tracing: Free error logs of tracing instances

When a tracing instance is removed, the error messages that hold errors that occurred in the instance needs to be freed. The following reports a memory leak:

# cd /sys/kernel/tracing # mkdir instances/foo # echo 'hist:keys=x' > instances/foo/events/sched/sched_switch/trigger # cat instances/foo/error_log [ 117.404795] hist:sched:sched_switch: error: Couldn't find field Command: hist:keys=x ^ # rmdir instances/foo

Then check for memory leaks:

# echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak unreferenced object 0xffff88810d8ec700 (size 192): comm "bash", pid 869, jiffies 4294950577 (age 215.752s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 60 dd 68 61 81 88 ff ff 60 dd 68 61 81 88 ff ff `.ha....`.ha.... a0 30 8c 83 ff ff ff ff 26 00 0a 00 00 00 00 00 .0......&....... backtrace: [<00000000dae26536>] kmalloc_trace+0x2a/0xa0 [<00000000b2938940>] tracing_log_err+0x277/0x2e0 [<000000004a0e1b07>] parse_atom+0x966/0xb40 [<0000000023b24337>] parse_expr+0x5f3/0xdb0 [<00000000594ad074>] event_hist_trigger_parse+0x27f8/0x3560 [<00000000293a9645>] trigger_process_regex+0x135/0x1a0 [<000000005c22b4f2>] event_trigger_write+0x87/0xf0 [<000000002cadc509>] vfs_write+0x162/0x670 [<0000000059c3b9be>] ksys_write+0xca/0x170 [<00000000f1cddc00>] do_syscall_64+0x3e/0xc0 [<00000000868ac68c>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc unreferenced object 0xffff888170c35a00 (size 32): comm "bash", pid 869, jiffies 4294950577 (age 215.752s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 0a 20 20 43 6f 6d 6d 61 6e 64 3a 20 68 69 73 74 . Command: hist 3a 6b 65 79 73 3d 78 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 :keys=x......... backtrace: [<000000006a747de5>] __kmalloc+0x4d/0x160 [<000000000039df5f>] tracing_log_err+0x29b/0x2e0 [<000000004a0e1b07>] parse_atom+0x966/0xb40 [<0000000023b24337>] parse_expr+0x5f3/0xdb0 [<00000000594ad074>] event_hist_trigger_parse+0x27f8/0x3560 [<00000000293a9645>] trigger_process_regex+0x135/0x1a0 [<000000005c22b4f2>] event_trigger_write+0x87/0xf0 [<000000002cadc509>] vfs_write+0x162/0x670 [<0000000059c3b9be>] ksys_write+0xca/0x170 [<00000000f1cddc00>] do_syscall_64+0x3e/0xc0 [<00000000868ac68c>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

The problem is that the error log needs to be freed when the instance is removed.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.15.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCISA-ADP

Weaknesses

  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before 987f599fc556a4e64c405d8dde32c70311e8c278Affected
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before 6e36373aa5ffa8e00fe7c71b3209f6f17081e552Affected
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before 33d5d4e67a0e13c3ca6257fa67bf6503bc000878Affected
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before c0cf0f55be043ef67c38f492aa37ed1986d2f6b6Affected
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before 46771c34d6721abfd9e7903eaed2201051eebec6Affected
  • 2f754e771b1a6feba670782e82c45555984ac43b to before 3357c6e429643231e60447b52ffbb7ac895aca22Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.2Affected
  • before 5.2Not affected
  • 5.4.241 through 5.4.*Not affected
  • 5.10.178 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.15.107 through 5.15.*Not affected
  • 6.1.24 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.2.11 through 6.2.*Not affected
  • 6.3 and laterNot affected

References

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