CVE-2023-53596: drivers: base: Free devm resources when unregistering a device

Published Oct 4, 2025
·
Updated

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

drivers: base: Free devm resources when unregistering a device

In the current code, devresreleaseall() only gets called if the device has a bus and has been probed.

This leads to issues when using bus-less or driver-less devices where the device might never get freed if a managed resource holds a reference to the device. This is happening in the DRM framework for example.

We should thus call devresreleaseall() in the devicedel() function to make sure that the device-managed actions are properly executed when the device is unregistered, even if it has neither a bus nor a driver.

This is effectively the same change than commit 2f8d16a996da ("devres: release resources on devicedel()") that got reverted by commit a525a3ddeaca ("driver core: free devres in devicerelease") over memory leaks concerns.

This patch effectively combines the two commits mentioned above to release the resources both on devicedel() and devicerelease() and get the best of both worlds.

Affected Software

195 affected componentsFixes available
Linux Kernel
Linux Linux kernel>=3.7<5.10.258
Linux Linux kernel>=5.11<5.15.209
Linux Linux kernel>=5.16<6.1.53
Linux Linux kernel>=6.2<6.4.16
Linux Linux kernel>=6.5<6.5.3
linux/kernel>=3.7.0<5.10.258
5.10.258
linux/kernel>=5.11.0<5.15.209
5.15.209
linux/kernel>=5.16.0<6.1.53
6.1.53
linux/kernel>=6.2.0<6.4.16
6.4.16
linux/kernel>=6.5.0<6.5.3
6.5.3
debian/linux<6.1.55-1
6.1.55-1
debian/linux<6.5.3-1
6.5.3-1
debian/linux<6.5.3-1
6.5.3-1
debian/linux
6.1.176-16.1.190-16.12.107-16.12.115-27.2.12-17.2.15-1
ubuntu/linux*
ubuntu/linux-aws*
ubuntu/linux-azure*
ubuntu/linux-lts-xenial*
ubuntu/linux*
ubuntu/linux-aws*
ubuntu/linux-aws-hwe*
ubuntu/linux-azure*
ubuntu/linux-gcp*
ubuntu/linux-hwe*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-edge*
ubuntu/linux-kvm*
ubuntu/linux-oracle*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux*
ubuntu/linux-aws*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.0*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.3*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-azure*
ubuntu/linux-azure-4.15*
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.3*
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-azure-edge*
ubuntu/linux-gcp*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-4.15*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.3*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-gke-4.15*
ubuntu/linux-gke-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-gkeop-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-hwe*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-edge*
ubuntu/linux-ibm-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-kvm*
ubuntu/linux-oem*
ubuntu/linux-oracle*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.0*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.3*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-raspi-5.4*
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips*
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips*
ubuntu/linux*
ubuntu/linux-aws*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.15<5.15.0-1112.119~20.04.1
5.15.0-1112.119~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-azure*
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.15<5.15.0-1117.126~20.04.1
5.15.0-1117.126~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fde*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-5.15<5.15.0-1117.126~20.04.2
5.15.0-1117.126~20.04.2
ubuntu/linux-bluefield*
ubuntu/linux-gcp*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.15<5.15.0-1112.122~20.04.1
5.15.0-1112.122~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-gke*
ubuntu/linux-gke-5.15*
ubuntu/linux-gkeop*
ubuntu/linux-gkeop-5.15*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.15<5.15.0-186.196~20.04.1
5.15.0-186.196~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-ibm*
ubuntu/linux-ibm-5.15<5.15.0-1106.110~20.04.1
5.15.0-1106.110~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-intel-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-intel-iotg-5.15<5.15.0-1107.113~20.04.1
5.15.0-1107.113~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-iot*
ubuntu/linux-kvm*
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15<5.15.0-184.194~20.04.1
5.15.0-184.194~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15<5.15.0-1064.66~20.04.1
5.15.0-1064.66~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-oem-5.10*
ubuntu/linux-oem-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-oem-5.6*
ubuntu/linux-oracle*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.13*
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.15<5.15.0-1109.115~20.04.1
5.15.0-1109.115~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-oracle-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-raspi*
ubuntu/linux-raspi2*
ubuntu/linux-riscv*
ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.11*
ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.15<5.15.0-1106.110~20.04.1
5.15.0-1106.110~20.04.1
ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.8*
ubuntu/linux-xilinx-zynqmp*
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips*
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips*
ubuntu/linux<5.15.0-186.196
5.15.0-186.196
ubuntu/linux-allwinner-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-aws<5.15.0-1112.119
5.15.0-1112.119
ubuntu/linux-aws-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-aws-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-aws-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-azure<5.15.0-1117.126
5.15.0-1117.126
ubuntu/linux-azure-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-azure-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-azure-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fde<5.15.0-1117.126
5.15.0-1117.126
ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-gcp<5.15.0-1112.122
5.15.0-1112.122
ubuntu/linux-gcp-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-gke<5.15.0-1108.114
5.15.0-1108.114
ubuntu/linux-gkeop<5.15.0-1095.103
5.15.0-1095.103
ubuntu/linux-hwe-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-ibm<5.15.0-1106.110
5.15.0-1106.110
ubuntu/linux-intel-iot-realtime*
ubuntu/linux-intel-iotg<5.15.0-1107.113
5.15.0-1107.113
ubuntu/linux-kvm<5.15.0-1104.109
5.15.0-1104.109
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency<5.15.0-184.194
5.15.0-184.194
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-nvidia<5.15.0-1107.108
5.15.0-1107.108
ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-nvidia-tegra<5.15.0-1064.66
5.15.0-1064.66
ubuntu/linux-nvidia-tegra-igx<5.15.0-1053.53
5.15.0-1053.53
ubuntu/linux-oem-5.17*
ubuntu/linux-oem-6.0*
ubuntu/linux-oem-6.1*
ubuntu/linux-oem-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-oracle<5.15.0-1109.115
5.15.0-1109.115
ubuntu/linux-oracle-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-raspi<5.15.0-1106.109
5.15.0-1106.109
ubuntu/linux-realtime*
ubuntu/linux-riscv*
ubuntu/linux-riscv-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-riscv-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-starfive-5.19*
ubuntu/linux-starfive-6.2*
ubuntu/linux-starfive-6.5*
ubuntu/linux-xilinx-zynqmp<5.15.0-1075.79
5.15.0-1075.79
ubuntu/linux-bluefield<5.15.0-1096.98
5.15.0-1096.98
ubuntu/linux-intel-iot-realtime<5.15.0-1104.106
5.15.0-1104.106
ubuntu/linux-realtime<5.15.0-1111.120
5.15.0-1111.120
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips*
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips*
ubuntu/linux-fips*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips*
ubuntu/linux-aws-fips<5.15.0-1112.119+fips1
5.15.0-1112.119+fips1
ubuntu/linux-azure-fips<5.15.0-1117.126+fips1
5.15.0-1117.126+fips1
ubuntu/linux-fips<5.15.0-186.196+fips1
5.15.0-186.196+fips1
ubuntu/linux-gcp-fips<5.15.0-1112.122+fips1
5.15.0-1112.122+fips1
ubuntu/linux-azure-6.11*
ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.11*
ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.11*
ubuntu/linux-intel*
ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11*
ubuntu/linux-oem-6.11*
ubuntu/linux-oem-6.8*
ubuntu/linux-raspi-realtime*
ubuntu/linux-realtime*
ubuntu/linux-riscv*

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 5.10.258
  2. Upgrade

    Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 5.15.209
  3. Upgrade

    Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.1.53
  4. Upgrade

    Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.4.16
  5. Upgrade

    Upgrade linux/Kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.5.3
  6. Upgrade

    Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.1.55-1
  7. Upgrade

    Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.5.3-1
  8. Upgrade

    Upgrade debian/linux to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 6.1.176-1Fixed in 6.1.190-1Fixed in 6.12.107-1Fixed in 6.12.115-2Fixed in 7.2.12-1Fixed in 7.2.15-1

Event History

Oct 4, 2025
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:44 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:44 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via OSV·03:44 PM
DescriptionAffected Software
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:15 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software
Data Sourced
via OSV·04:15 PM
Severity

Peer vulnerabilities

Found alongside the following vulnerabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2023-53596?

CVE-2023-53596 has been classified with a severity that addresses resource management issues in device unregistering.

2

How do I fix CVE-2023-53596?

To fix CVE-2023-53596, update your Linux kernel to the latest version that incorporates the necessary patches.

3

What systems are affected by CVE-2023-53596?

CVE-2023-53596 affects the Linux kernel, specifically in scenarios involving bus-less device management.

4

What vulnerabilities are related to device resources in CVE-2023-53596?

CVE-2023-53596 highlights issues with devm resource management when unregistering devices in the Linux kernel.

5

Is CVE-2023-53596 a critical vulnerability?

While CVE-2023-53596 addresses important resource management, the criticality depends on the specific use case and environment.

Contact

SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
132 Wickham Terrace
Fortitude Valley,
QLD 4006, Australia
info@secalerts.co
By using SecAlerts services, you agree to our services end-user license agreement. This website is safeguarded by reCAPTCHA and governed by the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. All names, logos, and brands of products are owned by their respective owners, and any usage of these names, logos, and brands for identification purposes only does not imply endorsement. If you possess any content that requires removal, please get in touch with us.
© 2026 SecAlerts Pty Ltd.
ABN: 70 645 966 203, ACN: 645 966 203