CVE-2026-23257 net: liquidio: Fix off-by-one error in PF setup_nic_devices() cleanup

What is CVE-2026-23257?

CVE-2026-23257 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Mar 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:

net: liquidio: Fix off-by-one error in PF setup_nic_devices() cleanup

In setup_nic_devices(), the initialization loop jumps to the label setup_nic_dev_free on failure. The current cleanup loop while(i--) skip the failing index i, causing a memory leak.

Fix this by changing the loop to iterate from the current index i down to 0.

Also, decrement i in the devlink_alloc failure path to point to the last successfully allocated index.

Compile tested only. Issue found using code review.

Weakness: CWE-193

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23257?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23257?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2026-23257 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23257 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 BELL-CVE-2026-23257, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23257, GHSA-p66j-qj5c-q58g, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-23257, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23257, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23257.