Bug 2396382 (CVE-2023-53375)

Summary: CVE-2023-53375 kernel: Linux kernel: Memory leak in tracing error log management causes denial of service
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's tracing functionality. When a tracing instance is removed, the system fails to free the associated error logs, resulting in a memory leak. A local attacker can exploit this vulnerability by repeatedly creating and removing tracing instances, which may lead to memory exhaustion and a denial of service (DoS) on the system.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-09-18 14:01:49 UTC
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.