Memory leak in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-90138
Published: September 19, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU151346
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 4.8 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-90138
CWE-ID: CWE-401
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a resource leak.
The vulnerability exists due to improper socket error handling in vsock_accept() when accepting a connection after a failed connection attempt on the listener. A remote attacker can perform a failed self-connect and then accept a valid incoming vsock connection to cause a resource leak.
The leak affects virtio and hyperv transports because rejected child sockets are not freed.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-90138
Install security update from vendor's repository.