CVE-2026-45900
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Memory Leak in Linux Kernel CAAM Crypto Driver

Publication date: 2026-05-27

Last updated on: 2026-05-27

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: caam - fix netdev memory leak in dpaa2_caam_probe When commit 0e1a4d427f58 ("crypto: caam: Unembed net_dev structure in dpaa2") converted embedded net_device to dynamically allocated pointers, it added cleanup in dpaa2_dpseci_disable() but missed adding cleanup in dpaa2_dpseci_free() for error paths. This causes memory leaks when dpaa2_dpseci_dpio_setup() fails during probe due to DPIO devices not being ready yet. The kernel's deferred probe mechanism handles the retry successfully, but the netdevs allocated during the failed probe attempt are never freed, resulting in kmemleak reports showing multiple leaked netdev-related allocations all traced back to dpaa2_caam_probe(). Fix this by preserving the CPU mask of allocated netdevs during setup and using it for cleanup in dpaa2_dpseci_free(). This approach ensures that only the CPUs that actually had netdevs allocated will be cleaned up, avoiding potential issues with CPU hotplug scenarios.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-05-27
Last Modified
2026-05-27
Generated
2026-06-16
AI Q&A
2026-05-27
EPSS Evaluated
2026-06-15
NVD
CVE-2026-45900
EUVD
EUVD-2026-32366
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel *
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Exploitability
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN
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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is a memory leak in the Linux kernel's crypto subsystem related to the caam driver. Specifically, when the embedded net_device structure was changed to dynamically allocated pointers, the cleanup process missed freeing allocated netdevs in certain error paths during device probing.

As a result, if the dpaa2_dpseci_dpio_setup() function fails during probe because DPIO devices are not ready, the allocated netdevs are not freed. Although the kernel retries the probe successfully, the leaked netdev allocations remain, causing memory leaks reported by kmemleak.

The fix involves preserving the CPU mask of allocated netdevs during setup and using it to properly clean up only the CPUs that had netdevs allocated, preventing leaks and avoiding issues with CPU hotplug scenarios.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to memory leaks in the Linux kernel when certain network device probes fail. Over time, these leaks can consume system memory unnecessarily, potentially degrading system performance or stability.

While the kernel's deferred probe mechanism retries the operation successfully, the leaked memory from failed attempts is never freed, which could accumulate and cause resource exhaustion in long-running systems.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability causes memory leaks related to netdev allocations during the dpaa2_caam_probe process in the Linux kernel.

Detection can be performed by monitoring kernel memory leak reports (kmemleak) that show multiple leaked netdev-related allocations traced back to dpaa2_caam_probe.

Using kmemleak tools or commands such as 'echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak' followed by 'cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak' can help identify these leaks.

Mitigation Strategies

The vulnerability has been fixed by ensuring proper cleanup of netdev allocations in the dpaa2_dpseci_free() function during error paths.

Immediate mitigation steps include updating the Linux kernel to a version that includes this fix.

Until the update is applied, monitoring for memory leaks and avoiding workloads that trigger dpaa2_caam_probe failures may reduce impact.

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