CVE-2026-23205: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb/client: fix memory leak in smb2_open_file() Reproducer: 1. server: directories are exported read-only 2. client: mount -t cifs //${server_ip}/export /mnt 3. client: dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/file bs=512 count=1000 oflag=direct 4. client: umount /mnt 5. client: sleep 1 6. client: modprobe -r cifs The error message is as follows: ============================================================================= BUG cifs_small_rq (Not tainted): Objects remaining on __kmem_cache_shutdown() ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Object 0x00000000d47521be @offset=14336 ... WARNING: mm/slub.c:1251 at __kmem_cache_shutdown+0x34e/0x440, CPU#0: modprobe/1577 ... Call Trace: <TASK> kmem_cache_destroy+0x94/0x190 cifs_destroy_request_bufs+0x3e/0x50 [cifs] cleanup_module+0x4e/0x540 [cifs] __se_sys_delete_module+0x278/0x400 __x64_sys_delete_module+0x5f/0x70 x64_sys_call+0x2299/0x2ff0 do_syscall_64+0x89/0x350 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e ... kmem_cache_destroy cifs_small_rq: Slab cache still has objects when called from cifs_destroy_request_bufs+0x3e/0x50 [cifs] WARNING: mm/slab_common.c:532 at kmem_cache_destroy+0x16b/0x190, CPU#0: modprobe/1577

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 6.1.141, before 6.1.163 (fixed in 6.1.163); from 6.6.93, before 6.6.124 (fixed in 6.6.124); from 6.12.31, before 6.12.70 (fixed in 6.12.70); from 6.14.9, before 6.18.10 (fixed in 6.18.10); version 6.19 only

Published 2026-02-14. Last modified 2026-06-17.