PT-2026-64597 · Linux · Linux

CVE-2026-64376 · Published 2026-07-25 · Updated 2026-07-25

NVD

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.

Related Identifiers

CVE-2026-64376

Affected Products

Linux

References · 7

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-64376 · Security Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/896df22ee57648b0c505bd76ddbc6b2341834696 · Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46d403da376a8b7c1187193294953816e1a8d7fe · Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2619b47a0c8114eef980a56ade7e3ef4b58eb384 · Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15432f19562fdb9199cce6d9fc24db12c71ed574 · Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/517676ec7dfca064e08f94007a4abd21969de0a0 · Note
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/92f41769e5fd16bcd9ba97500d0517332e0a5b45 · Note