Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2023-53318
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: recordmcount: Fix memory leaks in the uwrite function Common realloc mistake: 'file_append' nulled but not freed upon failure
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisAllocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.
General guidance for the memory leak class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
< 4.14.316>= 4.15, < 4.19.284>= 4.20, < 5.4.244>= 5.5, < 5.10.181>= 5.11, < 5.15.113>= 5.16, < 6.1.30>= 6.2, < 6.3.4CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped4.14.3164.19.2845.4.244
Upgrade to the next stable release in your current branch: 4.14.316+, 4.19.284+, 5.4.244+, or 5.10.181+ (or newer stable branch such as 5.15.x/6.x)
- 1. Identify current kernel version using 'uname -r'
- 2. Determine which version range your current kernel falls into from the affected versions list
- 3. For 4.14.x: upgrade to kernel 4.14.316 or later
- 4. For 4.15-4.19.x: upgrade to kernel 4.19.284 or later
- 5. For 4.20-5.4.x: upgrade to kernel 5.4.244 or later
- 6. For 5.5-5.9.x: these are end-of-life; upgrade to at least 5.10.181 or preferably a newer stable branch like 5.15.x or 6.x
- 7. For 5.10.x: upgrade to kernel 5.10.181 or later
- 8. Apply the fix via kernel upgrade or by cherry-picking commit 25c9b185f121812cbc215fdaa1192c6b9025b428 to your kernel source
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-53318 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-53318 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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