Skip to content
VulniPulse
Advisory severityMedium5.5Red Hat Linux

Medium [CVE-2026-72048] fix cas_ctl leak on spi_async failure

This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72048.

Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.

CVE-2026-72048 Source published Source updated

VulniPulse record published Record updated

Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxUnclassified
Open source advisory

Android app · Google Play

Monitor future Red Hat Linux CVEs from your phone.

Choose a whole vendor or a precise platform, then receive matching security advisories by phone notification, email, or both. Coverage follows 34 official vendor sources and 160+ reviewed platform categories.

Matching phone alertsOptional email delivery

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ieee802154: ca8210: fix cas_ctl leak on spi_async failure ca8210_spi_transfer() allocates cas_ctl with kzalloc_obj(GFP_ATOMIC) and relies entirely on the SPI completion callback ca8210_spi_transfer_complete() to free it.

The spi_async() API only invokes the completion callback on successful submission. On failure it returns a negative error code without ever queuing the callback, which leaves cas_ctl and its embedded spi_message and spi_transfer orphaned.

Every kfree(cas_ctl) in the driver is inside the completion callback, so there is no other reclamation path. ca8210_spi_transfer() is called from ca8210_spi_exchange(), the interrupt handler ca8210_interrupt_handler(), and from the retry path inside the completion callback itself.

The exchange and interrupt handler paths loop on -EBUSY, so under sustained SPI bus contention every retry iteration leaks a fresh cas_ctl (~600 bytes per occurrence). Fix it by freeing cas_ctl on the spi_async() error path.

While here, correct the misleading error string: the function calls spi_async(), not spi_sync(). The ieee802154: ca8210 driver fails to free allocated memory (cas_ctl) when the spi_async() operation encounters an error.

Under sustained Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus contention, this can lead to repeated memory leaks.

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

Discussion(0)

No comments yet. Share field notes, upgrade gotchas, or questions — verify against the vendor advisory before acting on community advice.

Sign in to join the discussion.