CVE-2026-31440 dmaengine: idxd: Fix leaking event log memory
A memory leak in the Linux kernel idxd driver during device removal can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service.
- 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-2026-31440?
CVE-2026-31440 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 Apr 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:
dmaengine: idxd: Fix leaking event log memory
During the device remove process, the device is reset, causing the configuration registers to go back to their default state, which is zero. As the driver is checking if the event log support was enabled before deallocating, it will fail if a reset happened before.
Do not check if the support was enabled, the check for 'idxd->evl' being valid (only allocated if the HW capability is available) is enough.
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31440?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-31440?
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-2026-31440 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31440 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-31440, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31440, GHSA-w853-9vqg-wx8h, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-31440, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-31440, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31440.