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Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

CVE-2025-21972

Medium
5.5/10

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: mctp: unshare packets when reassembling Ensure that the frag_list used for reassembly isn't shared with other packets. This avoids incorrect reassembly when packets are cloned, and prevents a memory leak due to circular references between fragments and their skb_shared_info. The upcoming MCTP-over-USB driver uses skb_clone which can trigger the problem - other MCTP drivers don't share SKBs. A kunit test is added to reproduce the issue.

  • LOW
  • LOCAL
  • NONE
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • NONE
  • HIGH

CWE-401 - Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)

'Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)' is a weakness that occurs when software doesn't effectively release allocated memory after it is used. If not addressed, this enables attackers to launch denial of service attacks (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected behavior resulting from low memory conditions.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published