GHSA-VFM9-VF3R-MGWG

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-25 12:31 – Updated: 2026-07-25 12:31
VLAI
Details

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

firmware_loader: fix device reference leak in firmware_upload_register()

firmware_upload_register() -> fw_create_instance() -> device_initialize()

After fw_create_instance() succeeds, the lifetime of the embedded struct device is expected to be managed through the device core reference counting, since fw_create_instance() has already called device_initialize().

In firmware_upload_register(), if alloc_lookup_fw_priv() fails after fw_create_instance() succeeds, the code reaches free_fw_sysfs and frees fw_sysfs directly instead of releasing the device reference with put_device(). This may leave the reference count of the embedded struct device unbalanced, resulting in a refcount leak.

The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and confirmed by manual review. Fix this by using put_device(fw_dev) in the failure path and letting fw_dev_release() handle the final cleanup, instead of freeing the instance directly from the error path.

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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-64376"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-07-25T10:17:20Z",
    "severity": null
  },
  "details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nfirmware_loader: fix device reference leak in firmware_upload_register()\n\nfirmware_upload_register()\n  -\u003e fw_create_instance()\n     -\u003e device_initialize()\n\nAfter fw_create_instance() succeeds, the lifetime of the embedded struct\ndevice is expected to be managed through the device core reference\ncounting, since fw_create_instance() has already called\ndevice_initialize().\n\nIn firmware_upload_register(), if alloc_lookup_fw_priv() fails after\nfw_create_instance() succeeds, the code reaches free_fw_sysfs and frees\nfw_sysfs directly instead of releasing the device reference with\nput_device(). This may leave the reference count of the embedded struct\ndevice unbalanced, resulting in a refcount leak.\n\nThe issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and\nconfirmed by manual review. Fix this by using put_device(fw_dev) in the\nfailure path and letting fw_dev_release() handle the final cleanup,\ninstead of freeing the instance directly from the error path.",
  "id": "GHSA-vfm9-vf3r-mgwg",
  "modified": "2026-07-25T12:31:33Z",
  "published": "2026-07-25T12:31:33Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-64376"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15432f19562fdb9199cce6d9fc24db12c71ed574"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2619b47a0c8114eef980a56ade7e3ef4b58eb384"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46d403da376a8b7c1187193294953816e1a8d7fe"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/517676ec7dfca064e08f94007a4abd21969de0a0"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/896df22ee57648b0c505bd76ddbc6b2341834696"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/92f41769e5fd16bcd9ba97500d0517332e0a5b45"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": []
}



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