SUNRPC: auth_gss: fix memory leaks in XDR decoding error paths
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: auth_gss: fix memory leaks in XDR decoding error paths The gssx_dec_ctx(), gssx_dec_status(), and gssx_dec_name() functions allocate memory via gssx_dec_buffer(), which calls kmemdup(). When a subsequent decode operation fails, these functions return immediately without freeing previously allocated buffers, causing memory leaks. The leak in gssx_dec_ctx() is particularly relevant because the caller (gssp_accept_sec_context_upcall) initializes several buffer length fields to non-zero values, resulting in memory allocation: struct gssx_ctx rctxh = { .exported_context_token.len = GSSX_max_output_handle_sz, .mech.len = GSS_OID_MAX_LEN, .src_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz, .targ_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz }; If, for example, gssx_dec_name() succeeds for src_name but fails for targ_name, the memory allocated for exported_context_token, mech, and src_name.display_name remains unreferenced and cannot be reclaimed. Add error handling with goto-based cleanup to free any previously allocated buffers before returning an error.
02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE
Affected packages
03 / CONNECTIONS
Connected vulnerabilities
04 / EVIDENCE
Source records
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: auth_gss: fix memory leaks in XDR decoding error paths The gssx_dec_ctx(), gssx_dec_status(), and gssx_dec_name() functions allocate memory via gssx_dec_buffer(), which calls kmemdup(). When a subsequent decode operation fails, these functions return immediately without freeing previously allocated buffers, causing memory leaks. The leak in gssx_dec_ctx() is particularly relevant because the caller (gssp_accept_sec_context_upcall) initializes several buffer length fields to non-zero values, resulting in memory allocation: struct gssx_ctx rctxh = { .exported_context_token.len = GSSX_max_output_handle_sz, .mech.len = GSS_OID_MAX_LEN, .src_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz, .targ_name.display_name.len = GSSX_max_princ_sz }; If, for example, gssx_dec_name() succeeds for src_name but fails for targ_name, the memory allocated for exported_context_token, mech, and src_name.display_name remains unreferenced and cannot be reclaimed. Add error handling with goto-based cleanup to free any previously allocated buffers before returning an error.
05 / REFERENCES
Further evidence
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3b56eb90feb8a3709417f5624f3871847d42bcb1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e6397b056335cc56ef0e9da36c95946a19f5118
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64303b92d94c0c7845a273acd8d84b796d6f1db7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4af3806846778799cd4ab0766dc18341e777264
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c81431b1b9fbd21e9a5a9211b5517b7295d18e6a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/caf7eff432e91a9eba1c79fa545c2f54be15d62b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d79b9097a6a2b91471b40755f1225364be5d85ff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df10f23defff22c8d55fe6db74f6e4ce927145bf
- https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/45xxx/CVE-2026-45870.json
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45870