Medium [CVE-2026-72032] HWS, fix matcher leak on resize target setup failure
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72032 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: HWS, fix matcher leak on resize target setup failure hws_bwc_matcher_move() allocates a replacement matcher before setting it as the resize target. If mlx5hws_matcher_resize_set_target() fails, the replacement matcher is not attached anywhere and is leaked.
The bug was first flagged by an experimental analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs while analyzing v6.13-rc1. The tool is still under development and is not yet publicly available.
Manual inspection confirms that the bug is still present in v7.1.1. An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings.
As we do not have a mlx5 HWS-capable device to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed. This vulnerability occurs when the hws_bwc_matcher_move() function attempts to resize a matcher, and the mlx5hws_matcher_resize_set_target() operation fails.
In such a scenario, a replacement matcher is allocated but not properly deallocated, leading to a memory leak. Over time, repeated occurrences of this flaw could potentially lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) due to resource exhaustion.
Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-772.
Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 25 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 25 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 25 days ago·verify at source
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