CVE-2026-46038 net: qrtr: ns: Free the node during ctrl_cmd_bye()

What is CVE-2026-46038?

CVE-2026-46038 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:

net: qrtr: ns: Free the node during ctrl_cmd_bye()

A node sends the BYE packet when it is about to go down. So the nameserver should advertise the removal of the node to all remote and local observers and free the node finally. But currently, the nameserver doesn't free the node memory even after processing the BYE packet. This causes the node memory to leak.

Hence, remove the node from Xarray list and free the node memory during both success and failure case of ctrl_cmd_bye().

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46038?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-46038?

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-2026-46038 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46038 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-88451, BELL-CVE-2026-46038, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46038, GHSA-pc3v-mpgj-wxwq, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-46038, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-46038 and 3 more.