Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-97979

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: add missing xa_destroy for sched_node_ids Commit 16dfa49406bc ("ice: Introduce new parameters in ice_sched_node") added a sched_node_ids xarray to the port info structure, but never called xa_destroy on it. Since xarrays can allocate internal memory, this can result in a memory leak even if every element in the xarray has been removed. The xarray is currently embedded in the port_info structure. This appears to have been done because its use is within functions that take the port_info as a primary argument. However, this complicates managing the lifecycle of the field. The port_info structure is allocated in ice_init_hw() using devm, and it is not released until the devm cleanup when the driver is unloaded. The ice_init_hw() function is called in many places, including devlink reload, and possibly during DDP load after updating the Tx scheduler layout. Adding a call of xa_destroy to the ice_deinit_hw() causes Sashiko to raise multiple concerns due to potential ordering issues and possible ways that port_info could be a dangling reference. To handle this, move the sched_node_ids out of port_info and into the hw structure. All users of the array already have a pointer to hw anyways, and there is only one sched_node_ids per adapter. While here, remove the overly verbose comment explaining the nature of the sched_node_ids xarray. Add the missing xa_destroy to the cleanup path and to ice_deinit_hw(), ensuring that we properly release the xarray memory. This was caught by Sashiko during development of unrelated code.

Published · last modified .

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (6.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 7th percentile — 6.7% 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-2026-97979: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

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

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 6.2, a388961be5ed8ee037ac68220e389bc4e9339a39

References