Memory leak in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-97973
Published: September 28, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU152495
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 0 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-97973
CWE-ID: CWE-401
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to leak phylink instances.
The vulnerability exists due to improper resource management in the macb driver probe error path when handling a failed macb_alloc_tieoff() or register_netdev() operation. A local privileged user can trigger a driver probe failure to leak phylink instances.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-97973
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3