Service interruption via link-down transmit buffer leak
Published Sep 11, 2026 · Updated Sep 11, 2026
Memory leak in the Linux NTB transport allows attackers to consume kernel memory by transmitting packets while a queue-pair link goes down. The ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() function returns success without queuing or consuming the socket buffer, causing ntb_netdev to forget ownership and leak one buffer per raced transmission. Reachability requires an NTB netdev queue pair and traffic concurrent with link-down; repeated races consume kernel memory and can interrupt service.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in the Linux NTB transport allows attackers to consume kernel memory by transmitting packets while a queue-pair link goes down. The ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() function returns success without queuing or consuming the socket buffer, causing ntb_netdev to forget ownership and leak one buffer per raced transmission. Reachability requires an NTB netdev queue pair and traffic concurrent with link-down; repeated races consume kernel memory and can interrupt service.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-80988
- Published
- Sep 11, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- Unavailable
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 11, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 11, 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=3cfdc448e8bfa8a7eaa5af87f357330566124b78
- Affected versionversion=4.14.326 <4.15
- Affected versionversion=4.19.295 <4.20
- Affected versionversion=449b1978d4e50b14b2a4de3a26d0b074593926a3
- Affected versionversion=4f4af6b8b7a23fa37decaf43b55403e6bfd8e219
- Affected versionversion=5.10.195 <5.11
- Affected versionversion=5.15.132 <5.16
- Affected versionversion=5.4.257 <5.5
- Affected versionversion=6.1.53 <6.2
- Affected versionversion=6.4.16 <6.5
- Affected versionversion=6.5.3 <6.6
- Affected versionversion=6.6
- Affected versionversion=94491412a2afc8a5aea4c5b455aed86d3486f0b1
- Affected versionversion=a8986a61ebee0b54c5d648444fbae09bd1c6dcd2
- Affected versionversion=aa6d6ed213b62cbdb09ea32abbfa085dd987a0c9
- Affected versionversion=bfa051f650a7708183bd86901ca4645dcf88c486
- Affected versionversion=c2cd5d993f57f819d46fe62387d3cc34d8468e60
- Affected versionversion=f195a1a6fe416882984f8bd6c61afc1383171860 <5eca0d899a3be661a7e2caaaa7467a6fa15d756c
- Affected versionversion=f195a1a6fe416882984f8bd6c61afc1383171860 <873ce713fef5dde0939220f04f3484ec86a16fba
- Affected versionversion=f195a1a6fe416882984f8bd6c61afc1383171860 <89177732fe1653bbfef10cf5d99bf20cf57762c2
- Affected versionversion=f195a1a6fe416882984f8bd6c61afc1383171860 <894e136b432da75c0352c80299807a5c4b04f167
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
No CVSS assessment is available in this record.
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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
No sourced classifications are available.
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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