Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-99161
Published: October 29, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU158424
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 4.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-99161
CWE-ID: CWE-772
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to cause a clock resource leak that may degrade system availability.
The vulnerability exists due to failure to release clock references in the Linux kernel's wmt_i2c_probe() function when a subsequent probe operation fails or the module is unloaded. A local privileged user can potentially trigger these driver lifecycle conditions to leave references acquired through of_clk_get() unreleased, which may exhaust resources over repeated occurrences.
Affected software
Linux kernel
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
Debian Linux
linux (Debian package)
How to mitigate CVE-2026-99161
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.115-2
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.115-2