Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-45870

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: auth_gss: fix memory leaks in XDR decoding error paths The gssx_dec_ctx(), gssx_dec_status(), and gssx_dec_name() functions allocate memory via gssx_dec_buffer(), which calls kmemdup(). When a subsequent decode operation fails, these functions return immediately without freeing previously allocated buffers, causing memory leaks. The leak in gssx_dec_ctx() is particularly relevant because the caller (gssp_accept_sec_context_upcall) initializes several buffer length fields to non-zero values, resulting in memory allocation: struct gssx_ctx rctxh = { .exported_context_token.len = GSSX_max_output_handle_sz, .mech.len = GSS_OID_MAX_LEN, .src_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz, .targ_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz }; If, for example, gssx_dec_name() succeeds for src_name but fails for targ_name, the memory allocated for exported_context_token, mech, and src_name.display_name remains unreferenced and cannot be reclaimed. Add error handling with goto-based cleanup to free any previously allocated buffers before returning an error.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (4.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 4.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-45870: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-45870?
CVE-2026-45870 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-05-27.
How severe is CVE-2026-45870?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.