CVE-2026-72048 ieee802154: ca8210: fix cas_ctl leak on spi_async failure
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72048?
CVE-2026-72048 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 2026.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ieee802154: ca8210: fix cas_ctl leak on spi_async failure
ca8210_spi_transfer() allocates cas_ctl with kzalloc_obj(GFP_ATOMIC) and relies entirely on the SPI completion callback ca8210_spi_transfer_complete() to free it.
The spi_async() API only invokes the completion callback on successful submission. On failure it returns a negative error code without ever queuing the callback, which leaves cas_ctl and its embedded spi_message and spi_transfer orphaned. Every kfree(cas_ctl) in the driver is inside the completion callback, so there is no other reclamation path.
ca8210_spi_transfer() is called from ca8210_spi_exchange(), the interrupt handler ca8210_interrupt_handler(), and from the retry path inside the completion callback itself. The exchange and interrupt handler paths loop on -EBUSY, so under sustained SPI bus contention every retry iteration leaks a fresh cas_ctl (~600 bytes per occurrence).
Fix it by freeing cas_ctl on the spi_async() error path. While here, correct the misleading error string: the function calls spi_async(), not spi_sync().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72048?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72048?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2026-72048 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72048 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72048, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72048, GHSA-f7cg-qgjp-phqf, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72048.