Local denial of service via discard reference leaks
Published Aug 15, 2026 · Updated Aug 15, 2026
Resource leak in the Linux kernel md/RAID10 driver allows local users to cause a service interrupt by triggering discard failures. Failure paths in raid10_handle_discard complete requests without md_write_end, or return after wait_barrier without allow_barrier, leaking accounting references. Exploitation requires local access and an md RAID10 discard failure; accumulated leaks exhaust resources and deny service without reported data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
Resource leak in the Linux kernel md/RAID10 driver allows local users to cause a service interrupt by triggering discard failures. Failure paths in raid10_handle_discard complete requests without md_write_end, or return after wait_barrier without allow_barrier, leaking accounting references. Exploitation requires local access and an md RAID10 discard failure; accumulated leaks exhaust resources and deny service without reported data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-72438
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 15, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-772, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 15, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 15, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=39db562b3fedb93978a7e42dd216b306740959f8
- Affected versionversion=5.15.111 <5.16
- Affected versionversion=5.17
- Affected versionversion=c9aa889b035fca4598ae985a0f0c76ebbb547ad2 <393d687131d8aa8c7e4de2cb494438e145d20fc2
- Affected versionversion=c9aa889b035fca4598ae985a0f0c76ebbb547ad2 <d1324b41dabd26787559efaeb430643c627c1eb0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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