CVE-2026-98535

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Freescale Frame Manager (fman) network driver. During device initialization, the driver retrieves a system clock resource to check its frequency but fails to release the reference count after reading the value. This omission results in a resource leak, preventing the clock object from being properly freed and potentially causing resource exhaustion.

This vulnerability is rated as Low severity because triggering the issue requires specialized hardware and elevated privileges, limiting both applicability and operational impact. The affected network driver is specific to Freescale/NXP architectures and is not utilized in standard enterprise deployments. Furthermore, the clock reference imbalance occurs solely during device probe and node initialization rather than regular runtime operations, preventing unprivileged users from generating recurring leaks or causing system instability.

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.