Linux Kernel up to 6.18.19/6.19.8 dma_fence_chain_alloc memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.19/6.19.8. This impacts the function dma_fence_chain_alloc. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-43396. No exploit is available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.19/6.19.8. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function dma_fence_chain_alloc. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe/sync: Fix user fence leak on alloc failure When dma_fence_chain_alloc() fails, properly release the user fence reference to prevent a memory leak. (cherry picked from commit a5d5634cde48a9fcd68c8504aa07f89f175074a0)

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-43396 since 05/01/2026. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 313452 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-43396), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.20 or 6.19.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 05edc78eb4699e8e000a62aaa8dace50a17e19e3/f8f90b33934b307f6e4599b9fae38aa1ee5441a7/0879c3f04f67e2a1677c25dcc24669ce21eb6a6c is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (313452). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion