Medium (5.5) in linux linux kernel. EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
capabilities: fix potential memleak on error path from vfs_getxattr_alloc()
In cap_inode_getsecurity(), we will use vfs_getxattr_alloc() to
complete the memory allocation of tmpbuf, if we have completed
the memory allocation of tmpbuf, but failed to call handler->get(...),
there will be a memleak in below logic:
|-- ret = (int)vfs_getxattr_alloc(mnt_userns, ...)
| /* ^^^ alloc for tmpbuf */
|-- value = krealloc(*xattr_value, error + 1, flags)
| /* ^^^ alloc memory */
|-- error = handler->get(handler, ...)
| /* error! */
|-- *xattr_value = value
| /* xattr_value is &tmpbuf (memory leak!) */
So we will try to free(tmpbuf) after vfs_getxattr_alloc() fails to fix it.
[PM: subject line and backtrace tweaks]
Severity
CVSS 3.1
5.5 medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 12% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)