# CVE-2026-74623: net: atlantic: free stranded TX buffers on ring deinit

> A memory leak in the Atlantic network driver causes resource exhaustion and denial of service when interfaces are brought down under load.

- **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:** 22 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 23 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-97170, BELL-CVE-2026-74623, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74623, GHSA-98pj-4qrw-8mcj, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74623

## What is CVE-2026-74623?

CVE-2026-74623 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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: atlantic: free stranded TX buffers on ring deinit

aq_vec_deinit() drains the TX rings with a single aq_ring_tx_clean()
call, which frees at most AQ_CFG_TX_CLEAN_BUDGET (256) descriptors and
stops at hw_head, which no longer moves once aq_vec_stop() has stopped
the hardware and NAPI. Completed descriptors beyond the budget and
everything still posted in [hw_head, sw_tail) keep their skb or
xdp_frame when the interface goes down: aq_vec_ring_free() then frees
the buffer ring and the references are lost for good.

Today this is a silent memory leak on every interface down under
TX/XDP_TX load. With the conversion of the RX path to page_pool posted
for net-next it becomes much more visible: XDP_TX frames carry fragment
references on the RX ring's page_pool, so a single stranded frame keeps
the pool's inflight count above zero forever. page_pool_destroy() then
never completes, the pool is leaked together with its pages, and
"page_pool_release_retry() stalled pool shutdown" is warned every 60
seconds from that point on, on every ifdown, XDP detach or ring resize
under XDP_TX load.

Bring back aq_ring_tx_deinit() as it was before the removal and use it
for teardown again, with one extension: TX rings can hold xdp_frames
nowadays, so release those too. They are returned with
xdp_return_frame() since this runs in process context.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74623?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-74623?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-74623 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74623 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-74623 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-74623 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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-2026-74623 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-2026-74623/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74623/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74623
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74623
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-74623

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74623/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.