CVE-2026-23091 intel_th: fix device leak on output open()

What is CVE-2026-23091?

CVE-2026-23091 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

intel_th: fix device leak on output open()

Make sure to drop the reference taken when looking up the th device during output device open() on errors and on close().

Note that a recent commit fixed the leak in a couple of open() error paths but not all of them, and the reference is still leaking on successful open().

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23091?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23091?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2026-23091 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23091 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-77160, BELL-CVE-2026-23091, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23091, GHSA-phfq-ppcx-5j3h, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-23091, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23091 and 1 more.