Linux Kernel up to 6.18.51/7.2.4 PCI Hotplug Driver pci_create_slot memory leak

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.8	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.51/7.2.4 and classified as very critical. This impacts the function pci_create_slot of the component PCI Hotplug Driver. The manipulation results in memory leak. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2026-89795. The attack requires a local approach. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.51/7.2.4. Affected is the function pci_create_slot of the component PCI Hotplug Driver. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI: Allow per function PCI slots to fix slot reset on s390 On s390 systems, which use a machine level hypervisor, PCI devices are always accessed through a form of PCI pass-through which fundamentally operates on a per PCI function granularity. This is also reflected in the s390 PCI hotplug driver which creates hotplug slots for individual PCI functions. Its reset_slot() function, which is a wrapper for zpci_hot_reset_device(), thus also resets individual functions. Currently, the pci_create_slot() assigns the same pci_slot object to multifunction devices. This approach worked fine on s390 systems that only exposed virtual functions as individual PCI domains to the operating system. Since commit 44510d6fa0c0 ("s390/pci: Handling multifunctions") s390 supports exposing the topology of multifunction PCI devices by grouping them in a shared PCI domain. This creates a problem when resetting a function through the hotplug driver's slot_reset() interface. When attempting to reset a function through the hotplug driver, the shared slot assignment causes the wrong function to be reset instead of the intended one. It also leaks memory as we do create a pci_slot object for the function, but don't correctly free it in pci_slot_release(). Add a flag for struct pci_slot to allow per function PCI slots for functions managed through a hypervisor, which exposes individual PCI functions while retaining the topology. Since we can use all 8 bits for slot 'number' (for ARI devices), change slot 'number' u16 to account for special values PCI_SLOT_PLACEHOLDER and PCI_SLOT_ALL_DEVICES.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-89795 since 09/11/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. Additional levels of successful authentication are required for exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 09/16/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.18.52, 7.2.5 or 7.3-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2050d900f9adbd6d6f38d30e182bcd9ad3108467/ecdcceed4d377b02d4ea036b65f83f962c38ede7/dcc5bec09e23bbc4f9de055a11fce9937244f2c8 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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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
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.2
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.8

VulDB Base Score: 8.2
VulDB Temp Score: 7.8
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Memory leak
CWE: CWE-401 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.18.52/7.2.5/7.3-rc1
Patch: 2050d900f9adbd6d6f38d30e182bcd9ad3108467/ecdcceed4d377b02d4ea036b65f83f962c38ede7/dcc5bec09e23bbc4f9de055a11fce9937244f2c8

Timelineinfo

09/11/2026 CVE reserved
09/16/2026 +5 days Advisory disclosed
09/16/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/16/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-89795 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-89795
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-405612

Entryinfo

Created: 09/16/2026 12:50
Changes: 09/16/2026 12:50 (59)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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Discussion

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