From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: AL-KERNEL To: kernel-cve@kernelcve.org Subject: [CVE-2026-80974][LOW] mfd: sm501: Fix potential memory leaks during remove Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:15:34 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-AL-KERNEL-CVE: CVE-2026-80974 X-AL-KERNEL-Priority: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Base-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-KPANIC: NO X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore: 0 X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore-Lower: unknown X-AL-KERNEL-Commit: fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 List-Id: CVE: CVE-2026-80974 Priority: LOW AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW KPANIC flag: NO Patch: mfd: sm501: Fix potential memory leaks during remove Commit: fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-80974 Analysis date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:15:34 -0400 ActionableScore: 0 ActionableScore lower bound: unknown Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate Manual review required: NO Summary: No one-sentence report phrase was found. ====================================================================== ABOUT THIS REPORT ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-80974 is available here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-80974 The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a separate ActionableScore mechanism. The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful security impact. Published priority for this report: LOW Manual review required: NO A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included at the end of this message. ====================================================================== AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT ====================================================================== CVE-2026-80974 LOW https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-80974 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';*CWE-401;*CWE-772;CWE-404;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '4.4';DESCR 'The sm501 remove paths did not free the sm501_devdata object allocated during probe, so repeated device removal or driver reload cycles can leak kernel memory. For the CVSS the PR:H is selected because reliable triggering normally requires administrative control over device removal, driver unbind, or module unload operations. The issue is not network reachable and is not triggered by packet or remote input. Impact is resource exhaustion denial of service only, with no evidence of memory corruption, information disclosure, or privilege escalation.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate (with actual score 0) YES LEAK UAF LINUS DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH NO NO checked ====================================================================== ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS ====================================================================== ActionableScore=0 PrimitiveClass=NONE RealUAF=NO HostAdminRequired=YES NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO ImportantCandidate=NO ManualReview=NO AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES 1. ActionableScore * Raw conservative score: -1 * Conservative score: 0 * Applied conservative floor/cap: lower bound clamp -1 -> 0 * Raw paranoid score: 0 * Paranoid score: 0 * Applied paranoid floor/cap: none * Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate**:: 2. Signal breakdown Conservative signals: * +1 Concrete persistent kernel resource leak. The patch directly establishes that struct sm501_devdata is allocated during probe and not freed during pci or platform remove. * -2 Full host admin equivalent privilege. Reliable triggering requires device removal, driver unbind, or module unload style control over a host device or driver. * No reliable kernel crash point awarded. The patch shows a memory leak, not an immediate panic or fatal fault. * No extra availability point awarded. A single remove leaks only a small driver private object, and host-wide exhaustion is not demonstrated. * No C or I signal awarded. There is no evidence of memory corruption, disclosure, unauthorized modification, or privilege escalation. * No UAF or repeated release signal awarded. The fix adds missing kfree and does not show a stale dereference, double free, second put, or refcount mutation through a dangling reference. * No remote reachability awarded. The path is local driver lifecycle management, not packet or remote input. Paranoid additional signal: * +1 Sustained resource exhaustion concern. Repeated host-admin-controlled remove or reload cycles could accumulate leaked kernel memory, but this remains resource-leak-only and does not create corruption or boundary-bypass leverage. 3. Reachability analysis The complete trigger is the sm501 device remove path for PCI or platform devices. This normally requires host administrator level control, such as unbinding the device, unloading the driver, removing a platform device, or otherwise controlling host device lifecycle. There is no evidence that an ordinary local user can trigger the full remove path. The operation is not namespace scoped. PCI and platform device removal are host-level device management operations, not attacker-created namespace-local objects. No network trigger is established. No prior remote exposure is relevant. The affected path depends on systems using the SM501 driver, but the patch does not establish unusual attackable input or special race timing. Race repeatability is not relevant. This is a deterministic cleanup omission. 4. Primitive and severity interpretation The exact primitive is a missing free of sm501_devdata during device removal. This is a persistent kernel memory/resource leak, not a use-after-free, not an out-of-bounds access, not a double release, and not an authorization bypass. PrimitiveClass is NONE because no meaningful corruption, stale-object use, ownership violation, semantic reinterpretation, or security-boundary primitive is established. Demonstrated consequence is limited resource leakage. The speculative worst case is memory exhaustion after repeated privileged lifecycle operations, but that remains DoS-only and host-admin-gated. ImportantCandidate is NO because there is no unresolved memory corruption or boundary-bypass primitive. AutoDowngradeAllowed is YES because this is a small remove-path memory leak with no UAF, no concrete repeated lifetime mutation, no controlled reclaim, no arbitrary read/write, and no privilege escalation evidence. Likely operational severity is low / ordinary moderate. 5. One-sentence report phrase The sm501 remove paths forgot to free sm501_devdata allocated during probe, allowing a host administrator controlled device remove or driver reload cycle to leak kernel memory and at worst cause resource exhaustion DoS after repeated operations. 6. Manual review recommendation NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED Reason: this is a host-admin-gated remove-path memory leak without memory corruption, UAF, repeated refcount mutation, network reachability, or security-boundary bypass. 7. Call-site confidence Call-site confidence: high ====================================================================== UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY ====================================================================== Patch: mfd: sm501: Fix potential memory leaks during remove Commit: fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 Commit description: The memory allocated for struct sm501_devdata in sm501_pci_probe() and sm501_plat_probe() is not freed by the corresponding remove functions sm501_pci_remove() and sm501_plat_remove(). Fix that by adding a call to kfree(). Fixes: b6d6454 ("[PATCH] mfd: SM501 core driver") Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Abdun Nihaal Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260720113836.73133-1-nihaal@cse.iitm.ac.in Signed-off-by: Lee Jones Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Changed files: drivers/mfd/sm501.c Diff excerpt: Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch. Full patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=fcc6c3b11d73459e0d55b27c98cc56d59fef4d82 ====================================================================== DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-80974 can be found here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-80974 The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information. The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore. Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability information often permits more than one defensible interpretation: Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.4 The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation. The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated real-world impact. CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment, because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration, hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental conditions can differ significantly between systems. A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites, subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or privilege-escalation impact. Conservative ActionableScore: unknown Paranoid ActionableScore: 0 The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7. For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following additional presentation split: ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0 The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases, MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update. There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0 even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage). KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification workflow. AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW KPANIC detected for this report: NO Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition. For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/ (and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report for non-existant CVE-id yet). Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases, please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses info to this particular CVE. And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar). My contact email for such notifications is alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).