CVE-2026-72017

Received Received - Intake

Memory Leak in Linux Kernel MACB Driver

Publication date: 2026-08-15

Last updated on: 2026-08-23

Assigner: kernel.org

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macb: drop in-flight Tx SKBs on close The MACB driver has since forever leaked the outgoing SKBs that have not yet been marked as completed. They live in queue->tx_skb which gets freed without remorse nor checking. macb_free_consistent() gets called in a few codepaths, but only close will trigger the added expressions. In macb_open() and macb_alloc_consistent() failure cases, queues' tx_skb just got allocated and are empty.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-08-15

Last Modified

2026-08-23

Generated

2026-09-04

AI Q&A

2026-08-15

EPSS Evaluated

2026-09-03

NVD

CVE-2026-72017

EUVD

EUVD-2026-59116

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
linux_kernel	macb	*

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel's MACB driver causes a memory leak of outgoing network packets (SKBs) that have not been processed. When the driver is closed, it fails to properly clean up these packets, which remain in memory and are not marked as completed.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves leaked outgoing SKBs in the MACB driver queue. Detection requires checking for uncompleted TX SKBs in the driver's queue. No specific commands are provided in the context to detect this issue.

Impact Analysis

The impact includes potential memory exhaustion over time due to leaked SKBs, which could lead to system instability or crashes. It may also cause network performance issues if the driver is frequently opened and closed.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability does not directly affect compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA as it pertains to a Linux kernel driver leaking SKBs in the MACB network interface. Compliance impacts would depend on specific system configurations and data handling practices rather than this technical flaw.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the Linux kernel patch that resolves this issue. Update to a kernel version where the MACB driver properly handles TX SKB cleanup. Monitor kernel updates from your distribution for the fix.

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