CVE-2026-23330 nfc: nci: complete pending data exchange on device close
A memory leak in the Linux kernel NFC subsystem allows attackers to cause denial of service by exhausting kernel memory through pending data exchanges.
- 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
What is CVE-2026-23330?
CVE-2026-23330 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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:
nfc: nci: complete pending data exchange on device close
In nci_close_device(), complete any pending data exchange before closing. The data exchange callback (e.g. rawsock_data_exchange_complete) holds a socket reference.
NIPA occasionally hits this leak:
unreferenced object 0xff1100000f435000 (size 2048): comm "nci_dev", pid 3954, jiffies 4295441245 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 27 00 01 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 '..@............ backtrace (crc ec2b3c5): __kmalloc_noprof+0x4db/0x730 sk_prot_alloc.isra.0+0xe4/0x1d0 sk_alloc+0x36/0x760 rawsock_create+0xd1/0x540 nfc_sock_create+0x11f/0x280 __sock_create+0x22d/0x630 __sys_socket+0x115/0x1d0 __x64_sys_socket+0x72/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x117/0xfc0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23330?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-23330?
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-2026-23330 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23330 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-23330, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23330, GHSA-vjm5-v2mx-wqmv, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-23330, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-23330, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23330 and 3 more.