CVE-2023-53854 | ASoC: mediatek: mt8186: Fix use-after-free in driver remove path

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ASoC: mediatek: mt8186: Fix use-after-free in driver remove path When devm runs function in the "remove" path for a device it runs them in the reverse order. That means that if you have parts of your driver that aren't using devm or are using "roll your own" devm w/ devm_add_action_or_reset() you need to keep that in mind. The mt8186 audio driver didn't quite get this right. Specifically, in mt8186_init_clock() it called mt8186_audsys_clk_register() and then went on to call a bunch of other devm function. The caller of mt8186_init_clock() used devm_add_action_or_reset() to call mt8186_deinit_clock() but, because of the intervening devm functions, the order was wrong. Specifically at probe time, the order was: 1. mt8186_audsys_clk_register() 2. afe_priv->clk = devm_kcalloc(...) 3. afe_priv->clk[i] = devm_clk_get(...) At remove time, the order (which should have been 3, 2, 1) was: 1. mt8186_audsys_clk_unregister() 3. Free all of afe_priv->clk[i] 2. Free afe_priv->clk The above seemed to be causing a use-after-free. Luckily, it's easy to fix this by simply using devm more correctly. Let's move the devm_add_action_or_reset() to the right place. In addition to fixing the use-after-free, code inspection shows that this fixes a leak (missing call to mt8186_audsys_clk_unregister()) that would have happened if any of the syscon_regmap_lookup_by_phandle() calls in mt8186_init_clock() had failed.

Published: 2025-12-09 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-53854 is rated Low Risk (3.1/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2023-53854

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 2025-12-09 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-53854

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-53854

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-53854

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2023-53854 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-53854
redhat https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53854
suse medium CVE-2023-53854 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 269 product×package rows across 54 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (54 product lines)): Known Not Affected 269. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-53854/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-53854 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 172, not-affected 139, released 84. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-53854

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-53854

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2023-53854

cvelogic Threat Intelligence