Bug 2516712 (CVE-2026-72461)

Summary:	CVE-2026-72461 kernel: apparmor: fix refcount leak when updating the sk_ctx
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
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Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the AppArmor security module of the Linux kernel. This vulnerability, a reference count leak when updating the `sk_ctx`, occurs because a reference is unconditionally put by the caller even when it has been transferred. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service by exhausting system resources.	Story Points:	---
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:27:10 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

apparmor: fix refcount leak when updating the sk_ctx

Currently update_sk_ctx() transfers the plabel reference, unfortunately
it is also unconditionally put in the caller. Ideally we would make
the caller conditionally put the reference based on whether it was
transferred but for now just fix the bug by getting a reference.

Comment 1 gkamathe 2026-08-19 07:08:26 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081533-CVE-2026-72461-3dc3@gregkh/T