Bug 2516319 (CVE-2026-72048)

Summary: CVE-2026-72048 kernel: ieee802154: ca8210: fix cas_ctl leak on spi_async failure
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. 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. This continuous resource exhaustion may result in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the system.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:06:17 UTC
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().