Local denial of service via GPIO reference leak
Published May 1, 2026 · Updated May 1, 2026
Memory leak in the Linux Kernel GPIO subsystem allows local users to exhaust kernel resources during failed GPIO chip registration. In gpiochip_add_data_with_key(), an unset gdev->dev.release handler prevents error paths after device_initialize() from dropping the gdev->dev reference. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and a repeatable registration error; repeated failures consume kernel memory and interrupt service.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in the Linux Kernel GPIO subsystem allows local users to exhaust kernel resources during failed GPIO chip registration. In gpiochip_add_data_with_key(), an unset gdev->dev.release handler prevents error paths after device_initialize() from dropping the gdev->dev reference. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access and a repeatable registration error; repeated failures consume kernel memory and interrupt service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-31732
- Published
- May 1, 2026
- Updated
- May 1, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 1, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=6.9
- Affected versionversion=aab5c6f200238ac45001bec3d5494fff8438a8dc <16fdabe143fce2cbf89139677728e17e21b46c28
- Affected versionversion=aab5c6f200238ac45001bec3d5494fff8438a8dc <f0cf9c7b7c281956cc0dec163132cd96f76e1d60
- Affected versionversion=aab5c6f200238ac45001bec3d5494fff8438a8dc <fb4584d2b324c522404c733c65840a1a6519ada8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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