CVE-2026-89449 iommu: Fix dev_iommu memory leak when device_add fails in iommu_mock_device_add
A memory leak in the Linux kernel IOMMU subsystem allows local attackers to exhaust system memory via ioctl calls, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-89449?
CVE-2026-89449 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 11 Sep 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:
iommu: Fix dev_iommu memory leak when device_add fails in iommu_mock_device_add
iommu_mock_device_add() first calls iommu_fwspec_init(), which on success allocates both dev->iommu (via dev_iommu_get()) and dev->iommu->fwspec. If the subsequent device_add(dev) call fails, the error path only calls iommu_fwspec_free(dev), which frees fwspec but leaves dev->iommu still allocated.
This triggers the following kmemleak report when fuzzing with Syzkaller:
BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888011e0a200 (size 192): comm "syz.1.1695", pid 24885, jiffies 4295222527 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de .............N.. ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ................ backtrace (crc 25df5bb3): kmemleak_alloc_recursive include/linux/kmemleak.h:44 [inline] slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4575 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4899 [inline] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x47a/0x710 mm/slub.c:5415 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:950 [inline] kzalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:1188 [inline] dev_iommu_get+0x10c/0x1a0 drivers/iommu/iommu.c:408 iommu_fwspec_init+0x288/0x4d0 drivers/iommu/iommu.c:3087 iommu_mock_device_add+0x46/0xb0 drivers/iommu/iommu.c:385 mock_dev_create drivers/iommu/iommufd/selftest.c:1025 [inline] iommufd_test_mock_domain drivers/iommu/iommufd/selftest.c:1066 [inline] iommufd_test+0x2f8a/0x6190 drivers/iommu/iommufd/selftest.c:2072 iommufd_fops_ioctl+0x367/0x540 drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c:533 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x116/0x800 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
Fix this by calling dev_iommu_free(dev) instead of iommu_fwspec_free(dev) in the device_add() failure path. dev_iommu_free() frees both fwspec and the outer dev_iommu struct and clears dev->iommu.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89449?
How do I fix CVE-2026-89449?
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-2026-89449 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89449 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-89449, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89449, GHSA-3365-g9v5-8jg9, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89449.