# CVE-2026-23150: nfc: llcp: Fix memleak in nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame().

> A race condition in the Linux kernel NFC LLCP module causes memory leaks, potentially leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-77655, BELL-CVE-2026-23150, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23150, GHSA-2j2f-9hjh-v2xm, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-23150, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23150, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23150

## What is CVE-2026-23150?

CVE-2026-23150 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 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:

nfc: llcp: Fix memleak in nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame().

syzbot reported various memory leaks related to NFC, struct
nfc_llcp_sock, sk_buff, nfc_dev, etc. [0]

The leading log hinted that nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame() failed
to allocate skb due to sock_error(sk) being -ENXIO.

ENXIO is set by nfc_llcp_socket_release() when struct
nfc_llcp_local is destroyed by local_cleanup().

The problem is that there is no synchronisation between
nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame() and local_cleanup(), and skb
could be put into local->tx_queue after it was purged in
local_cleanup():

  CPU1                          CPU2
  ----                          ----
  nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame()      local_cleanup()
  |- do {                       '
     |- pdu = nfc_alloc_send_skb(..., &err)
     |                          .
     |                          |- nfc_llcp_socket_release(local, false, ENXIO);
     |                          |- skb_queue_purge(&local->tx_queue);      |
     |                          '                                          |
     |- skb_queue_tail(&local->tx_queue, pdu);                             |
    ...                                                                    |
     |- pdu = nfc_alloc_send_skb(..., &err)                                |
                                       ^._________________________________.'

local_cleanup() is called for struct nfc_llcp_local only
after nfc_llcp_remove_local() unlinks it from llcp_devices.

If we hold local->tx_queue.lock then, we can synchronise
the thread and nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame().

Let's do that and check list_empty(&local->list) before
queuing skb to local->tx_queue in nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame().

[0]:
[   56.074943][ T6096] llcp: nfc_llcp_send_ui_frame: Could not allocate PDU (error=-6)
[   64.318868][ T5813] kmemleak: 6 new suspected memory leaks (see /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak)
BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff8881272f6800 (size 1024):
  comm "syz.0.17", pid 6096, jiffies 4294942766
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
    27 00 03 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  '..@............
  backtrace (crc da58d84d):
    kmemleak_alloc_recursive include/linux/kmemleak.h:44 [inline]
    slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4979 [inline]
    slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:5284 [inline]
    __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:5645 [inline]
    __kmalloc_noprof+0x3e3/0x6b0 mm/slub.c:5658
    kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:961 [inline]
    sk_prot_alloc+0x11a/0x1b0 net/core/sock.c:2239
    sk_alloc+0x36/0x360 net/core/sock.c:2295
    nfc_llcp_sock_alloc+0x37/0x130 net/nfc/llcp_sock.c:979
    llcp_sock_create+0x71/0xd0 net/nfc/llcp_sock.c:1044
    nfc_sock_create+0xc9/0xf0 net/nfc/af_nfc.c:31
    __sock_create+0x1a9/0x340 net/socket.c:1605
    sock_create net/socket.c:1663 [inline]
    __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1700 [inline]
    __sys_socket+0xb9/0x1a0 net/socket.c:1747
    __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1761 [inline]
    __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1759 [inline]
    __x64_sys_socket+0x1b/0x30 net/socket.c:1759
    do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
    do_syscall_64+0xa4/0xfa0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
    entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

BUG: memory leak
unreferenced object 0xffff88810fbd9800 (size 240):
  comm "syz.0.17", pid 6096, jiffies 4294942850
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    68 f0 ff 08 81 88 ff ff 68 f0 ff 08 81 88 ff ff  h.......h.......
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 68 2f 27 81 88 ff ff  .........h/'....
  backtrace (crc 6cc652b1):
    kmemleak_alloc_recursive include/linux/kmemleak.h:44 [inline]
    slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4979 [inline]
    slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:5284 [inline]
    kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0x36f/0x5e0 mm/slub.c:5336
    __alloc_skb+0x203/0x240 net/core/skbuff.c:660
    alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1383 [inline]
    alloc_skb_with_frags+0x69/0x3f0 net/core/sk
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23150?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23150?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23150 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23150 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-23150 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23150 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23150 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23150/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23150/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23150
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23150
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23150

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23150/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
