CVE-2026-43157
Memory Leak in Linux Kernel OcteonTX2 AF Driver
Publication date: 2026-05-06
Last updated on: 2026-05-06
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's octeontx2-af CGX driver, where two bitmaps used for RX/TX flow-control (rx_fc_pfvf_bmap and tx_fc_pfvf_bmap) are allocated during initialization but never freed during driver exit.
Because these bitmaps are not freed when the driver is unbound and rebound, it causes a memory leak detected by kmemleak, which tracks unreferenced kernel memory objects.
The fix involves freeing both bitmaps properly during the driver's teardown process to prevent this memory leak.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can lead to a memory leak in the Linux kernel when the affected driver is unbound and rebound repeatedly.
Over time, this memory leak could consume kernel memory resources, potentially degrading system performance or stability.
However, the vulnerability does not indicate direct exploitation for privilege escalation or data corruption.
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability involves memory leaks in the Linux kernel related to the octeontx2-af CGX driver, specifically bitmap leaks during driver unbinding and rebinding.
Detection can be performed by monitoring kernel memory leak reports, especially using kmemleak, which can identify unreferenced objects such as the leaked bitmaps.
A suggested approach is to enable kmemleak in the kernel and check its reports after unbinding and rebinding the affected driver.
- Enable kmemleak: echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
- Check kmemleak reports: cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak
- Unbind the driver: echo <device-id> > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/cgx/unbind
- Rebind the driver: echo <device-id> > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/cgx/bind
After these steps, reviewing kmemleak output can help detect the presence of the bitmap memory leaks.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
The vulnerability is caused by bitmap memory leaks in the octeontx2-af CGX driver due to bitmaps not being freed during driver teardown.
Immediate mitigation involves applying the fix that frees both RX and TX flow-control bitmaps during driver teardown.
If a patch is available, update the Linux kernel to a version that includes this fix.
Until the patch is applied, avoid unbinding and rebinding the CGX driver to prevent triggering the memory leak.