# CVE-2026-72240: mfd: sm501: Fix reference leak on failed device registration

> A reference leak in the SM501 MFD driver can lead to memory exhaustion and denial of service when device registration fails.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-72240, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72240, GHSA-86jq-c78h-58w8, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72240

## What is CVE-2026-72240?

CVE-2026-72240 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:

mfd: sm501: Fix reference leak on failed device registration

When platform_device_register() fails in sm501_register_device(), the
embedded struct device in pdev has already been initialized by
device_initialize(), but the failure path only reports the error and
returns without dropping the device reference for the current platform
device:

  sm501_register_device()
    -> platform_device_register(pdev)
       -> device_initialize(&pdev->dev)
       -> setup_pdev_dma_masks(pdev)
       -> platform_device_add(pdev)

This leads to a reference leak when platform_device_register() fails.
Fix this by calling platform_device_put() before returning the error.

The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and
confirmed by manual review.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72240?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-72240?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-72240 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72240 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-72240 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-72240 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72240 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72240/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72240/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72240
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72240
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-72240

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72240/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.