Executive brief
A memory leak was identified in the Linux kernel's AMD GPU driver during the initialization of certain hardware components. If the system runs out of memory during this specific process, the driver fails to clean up previously allocated resources, which could gradually degrade system performance or stability over time. This issue primarily affects systems using AMD graphics hardware and has been resolved in recent kernel updates.
Technical details
A memory leak exists in the amdgpu_acpi_enumerate_xcc() function within the Linux kernel's DRM subsystem. The vulnerability is triggered when amdgpu_acpi_dev_init() returns an -ENOMEM error code; in this specific error path, the function returns immediately without invoking kfree() on the allocated xcc_info structure. This flaw was identified via static analysis and code review. An attacker with the ability to trigger repeated initialization failures or memory pressure could potentially exhaust system memory, leading to a denial-of-service condition. Patches have been merged into multiple stable kernel branches to ensure xcc_info is properly freed in all error paths.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel Versions including amdgpu driver with ACPI XCC parsing support
Timeline
- 2026-01-29: other: Patch authored
- 2026-02-05: other: Initial commit to maintainer tree
- 2026-05-27: advisory: NVD advisory published
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18a7bbd11f17a7cd4c42fd5955d3675d68c692df
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e4b612fe7a960d610c20260c9ee220bddd1b215
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c9be63d565789b56ca7b0197e2cb78a3671f95a8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d1370ef2ecf7d4df25e3e1e430cd191b1e7f8596
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e87c73a80a12d337cf5f493c0956f6c2c9eafd80