CVE-2026-72309

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's tracing/remotes component. This vulnerability occurs when a page allocation fails within the trace_remote_alloc_buffer() function. Due to an unincremented CPU counter, a partially allocated buffer descriptor (rb_desc) is not properly freed, leading to a memory leak. Over time, this memory leak could potentially lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) condition.

A Moderate severity memory leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel tracing/remotes subsystem (kernel/trace/trace_remote.c). If a page allocation fails in trace_remote_alloc_buffer(), desc->nr_cpus is not incremented for the current CPU; as a consequence, the partially allocated buffer descriptor (rb_desc) is not freed when trace_remote_free_buffer() runs, leaking kernel memory. A local attacker able to trigger these failed allocations could leak kernel memory over time and potentially cause a denial of service. Red Hat scored this flaw as Moderate (CVSS 3.1: 5.5, AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). The vulnerable code was introduced in upstream Linux 7.1 and is not present in the kernels shipped by Red Hat: all Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel and kernel-rt streams and all Red Hat In-Vehicle OS kernels are therefore not affected (vulnerable code not present), and no update is required for Red Hat products.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.