# CVE-2026-45900: crypto: caam - fix netdev memory leak in dpaa2_caam_probe

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's CAAM crypto driver can exhaust system memory during probe failures, leading to 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:** 27 May 2026
- **Updated:** 27 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-45900, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45900, GHSA-4wj9-54w5-mwm9, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45900

## What is CVE-2026-45900?

CVE-2026-45900 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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:

crypto: caam - fix netdev memory leak in dpaa2_caam_probe

When commit 0e1a4d427f58 ("crypto: caam: Unembed net_dev structure in
dpaa2") converted embedded net_device to dynamically allocated pointers,
it added cleanup in dpaa2_dpseci_disable() but missed adding cleanup in
dpaa2_dpseci_free() for error paths.

This causes memory leaks when dpaa2_dpseci_dpio_setup() fails during probe
due to DPIO devices not being ready yet. The kernel's deferred probe
mechanism handles the retry successfully, but the netdevs allocated during
the failed probe attempt are never freed, resulting in kmemleak reports
showing multiple leaked netdev-related allocations all traced back to
dpaa2_caam_probe().

Fix this by preserving the CPU mask of allocated netdevs during setup and
using it for cleanup in dpaa2_dpseci_free(). This approach ensures that
only the CPUs that actually had netdevs allocated will be cleaned up,
avoiding potential issues with CPU hotplug scenarios.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-45900?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-45900?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-45900 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-45900 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-2026-45900 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-45900 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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-2026-45900 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-2026-45900/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45900/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-45900
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45900
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45900

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45900/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.