Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2026-23160

Medium · 5.5

CVSS

5.5

EPSS

0.1%

Published

Feb 14, 2026

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A small bug in Linux kernel code for certain network cards can waste memory when an error happens during startup, potentially making the system less stable over time.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Low Privilege
Complexity
Low
Impact
Denial Of Service
Component
OS kernel
Class
Other
Remediation
Patch
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Missing error-path cleanup in octep_device_setup() leaves DMA mappings and allocated configuration memory resident when octep_ctrl_net_init() fails, producing a kernel memory leak.

Why it matters to the business

Systems using the octeon_ep driver may gradually exhaust kernel memory and become unstable after repeated module initialization failures; urgency remains low given the absence of known exploitation and limited EPSS.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with the ability to trigger repeated failures of octep_ctrl_net_init() (for example by loading the driver against unsupported hardware) causes the leak on each failure; no remote vector or public exploit code is known.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to commit 5058d3f8f17202e673f90af1446252322bd0850f or later; rebuild and reboot with the patched octeon_ep driver; disable the driver if the hardware is not in use.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the running kernel contains commit 5058d3f8f17202e673f90af1446252322bd0850f; inspect octep_device_setup() to verify the error path now jumps to the unsupported_dev label; monitor kernel memory statistics during module load/unload cycles.

Typical attack path

  1. Obtain local access with privileges sufficient to load or initialize the octeon_ep kernel module
  2. Force octep_ctrl_net_init() to fail (unsupported device, resource contention, or crafted conditions)
  3. Observe that the error path returns without calling the unsupported_dev cleanup label
  4. Repeat to accumulate leaked mappings and memory until system impact occurs

How to detect it

Review kernel logs for repeated octeon_ep initialization failures followed by resource warnings; correlate with dmesg entries mentioning octep_device_setup or octep_ctrl_net_init failures; memory-leak detectors (kmemleak) may surface unreleased buffers after module unload.

What your security team should do

  • Apply the upstream fix or vendor kernel update containing commit 5058d3f8f17202e673f90af1446252322bd0850f within normal patch windows
  • Audit systems for presence of the octeon_ep driver and restrict module loading to authorized hardware only
  • Include the driver in routine kernel memory-leak testing and static-analysis pipelines

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: octeon_ep: Fix memory leak in octep_device_setup() In octep_device_setup(), if octep_ctrl_net_init() fails, the function returns directly without unmapping the mapped resources and freeing the allocated configuration memory. Fix this by jumping to the unsupported_dev label, which performs the necessary cleanup. This aligns with the error handling logic of other paths in this function. Compile tested only. Issue found using a prototype static analysis tool and code review.

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Linux Kernel 6.4.0 6.6.123

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