Linux Kernel up to 6.18.29/7.0.6 powerpc xive_irq_free_data memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.29/7.0.6. Affected is the function xive_irq_free_data of the component powerpc. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-46141. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.29/7.0.6 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function xive_irq_free_data of the component powerpc. 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: powerpc/xive: fix kmemleak caused by incorrect chip_data lookup The kmemleak reports the following memory leak: Unreferenced object 0xc0000002a7fbc640 (size 64): comm "kworker/8:1", pid 540, jiffies 4294937872 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 04 00 04 00 00 ................ 00 00 a7 81 00 00 0a c0 00 00 08 04 00 04 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 177d48f6): __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x520/0x730 xive_irq_alloc_data.constprop.0+0x40/0xe0 xive_irq_domain_alloc+0xd0/0x1b0 irq_domain_alloc_irqs_parent+0x44/0x6c pseries_irq_domain_alloc+0x1cc/0x354 irq_domain_alloc_irqs_parent+0x44/0x6c msi_domain_alloc+0xb0/0x220 irq_domain_alloc_irqs_locked+0x138/0x4d0 __irq_domain_alloc_irqs+0x8c/0xfc __msi_domain_alloc_irqs+0x214/0x4d8 msi_domain_alloc_irqs_all_locked+0x70/0xf8 pci_msi_setup_msi_irqs+0x60/0x78 __pci_enable_msix_range+0x54c/0x98c pci_alloc_irq_vectors_affinity+0x16c/0x1d4 nvme_pci_enable+0xac/0x9c0 [nvme] nvme_probe+0x340/0x764 [nvme] This occurs when allocating MSI-X vectors for an NVMe device. During allocation the XIVE code creates a struct xive_irq_data and stores it in irq_data->chip_data. When the MSI-X irqdomain is later freed, xive_irq_free_data() is responsible for retrieving this structure and freeing it. However, after commit cc0cc23babc9 ("powerpc/xive: Untangle xive from child interrupt controller drivers"), xive_irq_free_data() retrieves the chip_data using irq_get_chip_data(), which looks up the data through the child domain. This is incorrect because the XIVE-specific irq data is associated with the XIVE (parent) domain. As a result the lookup fails and the allocated struct xive_irq_data is never freed, leading to the kmemleak report shown above. Fix this by retrieving the irq_data from the correct domain using irq_domain_get_irq_data() and then accessing the chip_data via irq_data_get_irq_chip_data().

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-46141 since 05/13/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.18.30, 7.0.7 or 7.1-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2546fb8c9acc8c7512ed4339ce2a982cb7407065/e66ed135cdf23a318e9727dca48f98f7f6142f78/6771c54728c278bf1e4bfdab4fddbbb186e33498 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 the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider 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
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6

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

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Discussion