CVE-2026-72023 octeontx2-pf: fix SQB pointer leak on init failure
A memory leak in the OcteonTX2 PF driver can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service upon initialization failure.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72023?
CVE-2026-72023 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:
octeontx2-pf: fix SQB pointer leak on init failure
otx2_init_hw_resources() initializes SQ aura and pool resources before several later setup steps. On failure, err_free_sq_ptrs only frees SQB pages, leaving the per-SQ sqb_ptrs arrays behind.
Use otx2_free_sq_res() for the SQ unwind path and let it free sqb_ptrs even when sq->sqe has not been allocated yet.
The bug was first flagged by an experimental analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs while analyzing v6.13-rc1. The tool is still under development and is not yet publicly available. Manual inspection confirms that the bug is still present in v7.1.1.
An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have an OcteonTX2 PF device and the corresponding AF mailbox setup to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72023?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72023?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-72023 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72023 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72023, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72023, GHSA-pg89-x9gq-22c7, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72023.