CVE-2023-53359

Local denial of service via debugfs dentry leak

Published Sep 17, 2025 · Updated Sep 17, 2025

Resource leak in the Linux kernel USB core allows local users to cause availability loss through an unreleased debugfs lookup reference. usb_debugfs_cleanup() passes the dentry returned by debugfs_lookup() directly to debugfs_remove() without the required dput(), retaining a reference on every lookup. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and repeated reachability of the cleanup path; the bounded consequence is kernel-memory exhaustion.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.19%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource leak in the Linux kernel USB core allows local users to cause availability loss through an unreleased debugfs lookup reference. usb_debugfs_cleanup() passes the dentry returned by debugfs_lookup() directly to debugfs_remove() without the required dput(), retaining a reference on every lookup. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and repeated reachability of the cleanup path; the bounded consequence is kernel-memory exhaustion.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-53359
Published
Sep 17, 2025
Updated
Sep 17, 2025
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
CWE-401, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Sep 17, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Sep 17, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <30374434edab20e25776f8ecb4bc9d1e54309487
  2. Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <6683327b51a601daba32900072349dfa1d4e8fea
  3. Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <c68ece7baf2aa9783b8244482c03010d477d4a93
  4. Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <cc00340fb1226a2a3a5cf15473ac417da3c952f1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <30374434edab20e25776f8ecb4bc9d1e54309487; version=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <6683327b51a601daba32900072349dfa1d4e8fea; version=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <c68ece7baf2aa9783b8244482c03010d477d4a93; version=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <cc00340fb1226a2a3a5cf15473ac417da3c952f1

Published CVSS scores

5.5CanonicalCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-401Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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