# CVE-2026-43090: xfrm: fix refcount leak in xfrm_migrate_policy_find

> A refcount leak in the Linux kernel's xfrm subsystem allows attackers to cause memory exhaustion and 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:** 6 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43090, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43090, GHSA-98cq-cjv3-cjrc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43090

## What is CVE-2026-43090?

CVE-2026-43090 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 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:

xfrm: fix refcount leak in xfrm_migrate_policy_find

syzkaller reported a memory leak in xfrm_policy_alloc:

  BUG: memory leak
  unreferenced object 0xffff888114d79000 (size 1024):
    comm "syz.1.17", pid 931
    ...
    xfrm_policy_alloc+0xb3/0x4b0 net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c:432

The root cause is a double call to xfrm_pol_hold_rcu() in
xfrm_migrate_policy_find(). The lookup function already returns
a policy with held reference, making the second call redundant.

Remove the redundant xfrm_pol_hold_rcu() call to fix the refcount
imbalance and prevent the memory leak.

Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43090?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43090?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43090 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43090 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-2026-43090 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43090 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 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-2026-43090 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-2026-43090/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43090/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43090
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43090
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43090

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43090/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.