# CVE-2026-52904: drm/nouveau: fix nvkm_device leak on aperture removal failure

> A memory leak in the nouveau driver allows attackers to cause denial of service by triggering aperture removal failures during device probing.

- **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:** 9 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-52904, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52904, GHSA-h586-h5c7-xhhh, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-52904

## What is CVE-2026-52904?

CVE-2026-52904 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 9 Jun 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:

drm/nouveau: fix nvkm_device leak on aperture removal failure

When aperture_remove_conflicting_pci_devices() fails during probe, the
error path returns directly without unwinding the nvkm_device that was
just allocated by nvkm_device_pci_new(). This leaks both the device
wrapper and the pci_enable_device() reference taken inside it.

Jump to the existing fail_nvkm label so nvkm_device_del() runs and
balances both. The leak was introduced when the intermediate
nvkm_device_del() between detection and aperture removal was dropped
in favor of creating the pci device once.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52904?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-52904?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-52904 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52904 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-2026-52904 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-52904 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 9 Jun 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-2026-52904 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-2026-52904/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52904/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52904
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52904
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-52904

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52904/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.