CVE-2026-72179: Linux

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: cacheinfo: Fix node reference leak in populate_cache_leaves Currently, the while loop drops the reference to prev in each iteration. If the loop terminates early due to a break, the final of_node_put(np) correctly drops the reference to the current node. However, if the loop terminates naturally because np == NULL, calling of_node_put(np) is a no-op. This leaves the last valid node stored in prev without its reference dropped, resulting in a node reference leak. Fix this by changing the final `of_node_put(np)` to `of_node_put(prev)`.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 5.0, before 6.1.178 (fixed in 6.1.178); from 6.2, before 6.6.145 (fixed in 6.6.145); from 6.7, before 6.12.97 (fixed in 6.12.97); from 6.13, before 6.18.40 (fixed in 6.18.40); from 6.19, before 7.1.5 (fixed in 7.1.5)

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-17.