CVE-2026-53121 amd-pstate: Fix memory leak in amd_pstate_epp_cpu_init()

What is CVE-2026-53121?

CVE-2026-53121 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 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:

amd-pstate: Fix memory leak in amd_pstate_epp_cpu_init()

On failure to set the epp, the function amd_pstate_epp_cpu_init() returns with an error code without freeing the cpudata object that was allocated at the beginning of the function.

Ensure that the cpudata object is freed before returning from the function.

This memory leak was discovered by Claude Opus 4.6 with the aid of Chris Mason's AI review-prompts (https://github.com/masoncl/review-prompts/tree/main/kernel).

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53121?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-53121?

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-2026-53121 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53121 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 BELL-CVE-2026-53121, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53121, GHSA-h8rj-w8q4-6g6r, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53121.