Memory leak in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-53394
Published: July 21, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU138871
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 6.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-53394
CWE-ID: CWE-401
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a memory leak in find_or_alloc_open_stateowner() in the NFSv4 server state handling code when processing concurrent NFSv4.0 OPEN operations with the same owner string during an unconfirmed retry race. A remote attacker can trigger repeated racing OPEN requests to cause a denial of service.
The issue requires a narrow but repeatable race condition involving two NFSv4.0 OPEN threads and a concurrent insertion of a new unconfirmed owner between retry iterations.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-53394
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3