CVE-2023-53597 | cifs: fix mid leak during reconnection after timeout threshold

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: fix mid leak during reconnection after timeout threshold When the number of responses with status of STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT exceeds a specified threshold (NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT), we reconnect the connection. But we do not return the mid, or the credits returned for the mid, or reduce the number of in-flight requests. This bug could result in the server->in_flight count to go bad, and also cause a leak in the mids. This change moves the check to a few lines below where the response is decrypted, even of the response is read from the transform header. This way, the code for returning the mids can be reused. Also, the cifs_reconnect was reconnecting just the transport connection before. In case of multi-channel, this may not be what we want to do after several timeouts. Changed that to reconnect the session and the tree too. Also renamed NUM_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT to a more appropriate name MAX_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT.

Published: 2025-10-04 Last update: 2026-03-23 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53597 is rated Low Risk (23.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-53597

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-10-05 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53597

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53597

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53597

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-53597 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53597
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53597
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53597/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53597 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, ignored 158, not-affected 122, released 116, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53597

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53597

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.9.5, < 5.15.150 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.42 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.4.7 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.5 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-53597

cvelogic Threat Intelligence