CVE-2026-72026 irqchip/irq-riscv-imsic-early: Fix fwnode leak on state setup failure
A memory leak in the Linux kernel's RISC-V IMSIC 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-2026-72026?
CVE-2026-72026 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:
irqchip/irq-riscv-imsic-early: Fix fwnode leak on state setup failure
imsic_early_acpi_init() allocates a firmware node before setting up the IMSIC state. If imsic_setup_state() fails, the function returns without freeing the allocated fwnode.
Free the fwnode and clear the global pointer on this error path, matching the cleanup already done when imsic_early_probe() fails.
[ tglx: Use a common cleanup path instead of copying code around ]
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72026?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72026?
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-2026-72026 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72026 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72026, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72026, GHSA-29m7-j59q-hvh8, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72026.