Linux Kernel up to 6.18.26/7.0.3 damon_start memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.26/7.0.3. This affects the function damon_start. Executing a manipulation can lead to memory leak. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-46087. There is not any exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.26/7.0.3. This vulnerability affects the function damon_start. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/stat: fix memory leak on damon_start() failure in damon_stat_start() Destroy the DAMON context and reset the global pointer when damon_start() fails. Otherwise, the context allocated by damon_stat_build_ctx() is leaked, and the stale damon_stat_context pointer will be overwritten on the next enable attempt, making the old allocation permanently unreachable.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-46087 since 05/13/2026. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.18.27, 7.0.4 or 7.1-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 8a62c58411cbd748d7aeab0e5b0963e33ff47a7a/50bc1d7e0f3bb6932c8dc5da0907eead0790176b/e04ed278d25bf15769800bf6e35c6737f137186f 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.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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