CVE-2023-53234: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: watchdog: Fix kmemleak in watchdog_cdev_register kmemleak reports memory leaks in watchdog_dev_register, as follows: unreferenced object 0xffff888116233000 (size 2048): comm ""modprobe"", pid 28147, jiffies 4353426116 (age 61.741s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 80 fa b9 05 81 88 ff ff 08 30 23 16 81 88 ff ff .........0#..... 08 30 23 16 81 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .0#............. backtrace: [<000000007f001ffd>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x157/0x220 [<000000006a389304>] kmalloc_trace+0x21/0x110 [<000000008d640eea>] watchdog_dev_register+0x4e/0x780 [watchdog] [<0000000053c9f248>] __watchdog_register_device+0x4f0/0x680 [watchdog] [<00000000b2979824>] watchdog_register_device+0xd2/0x110 [watchdog] [<000000001f730178>] 0xffffffffc10880ae [<000000007a1a8bcc>] do_one_initcall+0xcb/0x4d0 [<00000000b98be325>] do_init_module+0x1ca/0x5f0 [<0000000046d08e7c>] load_module+0x6133/0x70f0 ... unreferenced object 0xffff888105b9fa80 (size 16): comm ""modprobe"", pid 28147, jiffies 4353426116 (age 61.741s) hex dump (first 16 bytes): 77 61 74 63 68 64 6f 67 31 00 b9 05 81 88 ff ff watchdog1....... backtrace: [<000000007f001ffd>] __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x157/0x220 [<00000000486ab89b>] __kmalloc_node_track_caller+0x44/0x1b0 [<000000005a39aab0>] kvasprintf+0xb5/0x140 [<0000000024806f85>] kvasprintf_const+0x55/0x180 [<000000009276cb7f>] kobject_set_name_vargs+0x56/0x150 [<00000000a92e820b>] dev_set_name+0xab/0xe0 [<00000000cec812c6>] watchdog_dev_register+0x285/0x780 [watchdog] [<0000000053c9f248>] __watchdog_register_device+0x4f0/0x680 [watchdog] [<00000000b2979824>] watchdog_register_device+0xd2/0x110 [watchdog] [<000000001f730178>] 0xffffffffc10880ae [<000000007a1a8bcc>] do_one_initcall+0xcb/0x4d0 [<00000000b98be325>] do_init_module+0x1ca/0x5f0 [<0000000046d08e7c>] load_module+0x6133/0x70f0 ... The reason is that put_device is not be called if cdev_device_add fails and wdd->id != 0. watchdog_cdev_register wd_data = kzalloc [1] err = dev_set_name [2] .. err = cdev_device_add if (err) { if (wdd->id == 0) { // wdd->id != 0 .. } return err; // [1],[2] would be leaked To fix it, call put_device in all wdd->id cases.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 4.9.225, before 4.10 (fixed in 4.10); from 4.14.182, before 4.14.308 (fixed in 4.14.308); from 4.19.93, before 4.19.276 (fixed in 4.19.276); from 5.4.8, before 5.4.235 (fixed in 5.4.235); from 5.5, before 5.10.173 (fixed in 5.10.173); from 5.11, before 5.15.100 (fixed in 5.15.100); …

Published 2025-09-15. Last modified 2026-06-17.