# CVE-2026-43445: e1000/e1000e: Fix leak in DMA error cleanup

> A memory leak in the e1000/e1000e network driver can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service when DMA mapping errors occur.

- **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:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43445, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43445, GHSA-fg4c-9xcm-vp9q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43445, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43445, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43445, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43445

## What is CVE-2026-43445?

CVE-2026-43445 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 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:

e1000/e1000e: Fix leak in DMA error cleanup

If an error is encountered while mapping TX buffers, the driver should
unmap any buffers already mapped for that skb.

Because count is incremented after a successful mapping, it will always
match the correct number of unmappings needed when dma_error is reached.
Decrementing count before the while loop in dma_error causes an
off-by-one error. If any mapping was successful before an unsuccessful
mapping, exactly one DMA mapping would leak.

In these commits, a faulty while condition caused an infinite loop in
dma_error:
Commit 03b1320dfcee ("e1000e: remove use of skb_dma_map from e1000e
driver")
Commit 602c0554d7b0 ("e1000: remove use of skb_dma_map from e1000 driver")

Commit c1fa347f20f1 ("e1000/e1000e/igb/igbvf/ixgb/ixgbe: Fix tests of
unsigned in *_tx_map()") fixed the infinite loop, but introduced the
off-by-one error.

This issue may still exist in the igbvf driver, but I did not address it
in this patch.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43445?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43445?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43445 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43445 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-2026-43445 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43445 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 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-2026-43445 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-2026-43445/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43445/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43445
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43445
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43445

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43445/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.