Bug 2516592 (CVE-2026-72040)

Summary: CVE-2026-72040 kernel: ipmi: fix refcount leak in i_ipmi_request()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Priority: low    
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's Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) subsystem. When a caller provides a message to the `i_ipmi_request()` function, a reference count is incremented. However, if an error occurs during this process, the reference count is not properly decremented, resulting in a permanent resource leak. This resource leak could allow a local attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on the system.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:20:42 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipmi: fix refcount leak in i_ipmi_request()

When a caller provides a `supplied_recv` message to i_ipmi_request(),
the function increments the user's `nr_msgs` reference count. If an
error occurs later, the out_err cleanup path only frees the recv_msg
if the function allocated it itself (i.e., !supplied_recv). In the
supplied_recv case the cleanup is skipped, leaving the reference count
elevated. The caller ipmi_request_supply_msgs() does not release the
supplied_recv on error, so the reference is permanently leaked.

Fix this by explicitly reverting the reference count operations when a
supplied recv_msg with a valid user pointer is present in the error
path: decrement nr_msgs and drop the user's kref.
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-08-17 17:33:13 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081513-CVE-2026-72040-aa8f@gregkh/T