CVE-2026-23464

Vulnerability

The vulnerability is a memory leak in the Linux kernel's mpfs_sys_controller_probe() function within the soc/microchip/mpfs subsystem. When the call to of_get_mtd_device_by_node() fails, the function returns immediately without freeing the memory previously allocated for sys_controller, causing a memory leak [1][2].

Exploitation

An attacker would need to trigger a failure in of_get_mtd_device_by_node(), which could occur if the device tree node is invalid or missing. The vulnerability is present in the probe path of the system controller driver, so it requires the driver to be loaded and to encounter an expected error condition. No special privileges are required beyond the ability to trigger a probe of the affected device [3].

Impact

If successfully triggered, the memory leak leads to gradual depletion of kernel memory over time, potentially causing system instability or denial of service on systems using the Microchip PolarFire SoC [4]. The CVSS v3 score is 5.5 (Medium), reflecting the moderate severity of a local memory leak that could lead to degraded performance.

Mitigation

The fix has been applied in the Linux kernel stable trees as of April 2026. Users should update to a kernel version containing the commits that consolidate error paths and properly free memory on failure [1][2][3][4].