CVE-2026-72038 net: liquidio: fix BAR resource leak on PF number failure
A resource leak in the Liquidio network driver allows local attackers to cause denial of service by triggering a specific error path.
- 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-2026-72038?
CVE-2026-72038 is a denial of service 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:
net: liquidio: fix BAR resource leak on PF number failure
If cn23xx_get_pf_num() fails, the function returns without unmapping either BAR. Unmap both BARs before returning from the error path.
Found by manual code review.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72038?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72038?
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-2026-72038 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72038 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72038, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72038, GHSA-c536-fgj4-j8c9, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72038.