CVE Database›Document archive›CVE-2023-53234

CVE-2023-53234

kernel: watchdog: Fix kmemleak in watchdog_cdev_register

Loading…

Severity

Low

Red Hat Product Security

5.5

CVSS 3.1

Review impact separately from score.

Published · September 15, 2025

Updated · June 30, 2026

Description

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.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

No mitigation is specified in collected source.

CVSS / CWE

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

CWE-772 · Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime