CVE-2026-98780 drm/amdgpu: fix IP instance memory leak on kobject add failure
A memory leak in the amdgpu driver allows local attackers to exhaust kernel memory, potentially causing a denial of service.
- 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-2026-98780?
CVE-2026-98780 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 18 Oct 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:
drm/amdgpu: fix IP instance memory leak on kobject add failure
amdgpu_discovery_sysfs_ips() allocates ip_hw_instance with kzalloc_flex() and initializes its embedded kobject before calling kobject_add().
If kobject_add() fails, the return value is ignored and execution continues without dropping the initial kobject reference. The failed kobject is not retained in the kset list, so the normal sysfs teardown path cannot find it. As a result, ip_hw_instance_release() is never called and the ip_hw_instance allocation is leaked.
Call kobject_put() when kobject_add() fails so the initial reference is dropped and ip_hw_instance_release() can free the allocation. Keep the existing best-effort sysfs behavior by continuing with the remaining IP entries after the failed registration.
The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and confirmed by manual review.
(cherry picked from commit 5c75fbcca8af1096d8d9415b91d8ea6212c22ee1)
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98780?
How do I fix CVE-2026-98780?
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-2026-98780 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98780 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-108758, BELL-CVE-2026-98780, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98780, GHSA-5p9g-gx3h-932c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98780.