Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-71232

Linux Kernel 4.16 – 5.10.251

Published
18 February 2026
Modified
18 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0012 2th percentile
Risk Priority 40 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-71232 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime (CWE-772) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: qla2xxx: Free sp in error path to fix system crash System crash seen during load/unload test in a loop, [61110.449331] qla2xxx [0000:27:00.0]-0042:0: Disabled MSI-X. [61110.467494] ============================================================================= [61110.467498] BUG qla2xxx_srbs…

more

(Tainted: G OE -------- --- ): Objects remaining in qla2xxx_srbs on __kmem_cache_shutdown() [61110.467501] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [61110.467502] Slab 0x000000000ffc8162 objects=51 used=1 fp=0x00000000e25d3d85 flags=0x57ffffc0010200(slab|head|node=1|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) [61110.467509] CPU: 53 PID: 455206 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE -------- --- 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2.x86_64 #1 [61110.467513] Hardware name: HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus v2/ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus v2, BIOS A42 08/17/2023 [61110.467515] Call Trace: [61110.467516] <TASK> [61110.467519] dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x48 [61110.467526] slab_err.cold+0x53/0x67 [61110.467534] __kmem_cache_shutdown+0x16e/0x320 [61110.467540] kmem_cache_destroy+0x51/0x160 [61110.467544] qla2x00_module_exit+0x93/0x99 [qla2xxx] [61110.467607] ? __do_sys_delete_module.constprop.0+0x178/0x280 [61110.467613] ? syscall_trace_enter.constprop.0+0x145/0x1d0 [61110.467616] ? do_syscall_64+0x5c/0x90 [61110.467619] ? exc_page_fault+0x62/0x150 [61110.467622] ? entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd [61110.467626] </TASK> [61110.467627] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint [61110.467635] Object 0x0000000026f7e6e6 @offset=16000 [61110.467639] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [61110.467639] kmem_cache_destroy qla2xxx_srbs: Slab cache still has objects when called from qla2x00_module_exit+0x93/0x99 [qla2xxx] [61110.467659] WARNING: CPU: 53 PID: 455206 at mm/slab_common.c:520 kmem_cache_destroy+0x14d/0x160 [61110.467718] CPU: 53 PID: 455206 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Tainted: G B OE -------- --- 5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2.x86_64 #1 [61110.467720] Hardware name: HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus v2/ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus v2, BIOS A42 08/17/2023 [61110.467721] RIP: 0010:kmem_cache_destroy+0x14d/0x160 [61110.467724] Code: 99 7d 07 00 48 89 ef e8 e1 6a 07 00 eb b3 48 8b 55 60 48 8b 4c 24 20 48 c7 c6 70 fc 66 90 48 c7 c7 f8 ef a1 90 e8 e1 ed 7c 00 <0f> 0b eb 93 c3 cc cc cc cc 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 55 48 89 [61110.467725] RSP: 0018:ffffa304e489fe80 EFLAGS: 00010282 [61110.467727] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffffffc0d9a860 RCX: 0000000000000027 [61110.467729] RDX: ffff8fd5ff9598a8 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffff8fd5ff9598a0 [61110.467730] RBP: ffff8fb6aaf78700 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000100d863b7 [61110.467731] R10: ffffa304e489fd20 R11: ffffffff913bef48 R12: 0000000040002000 [61110.467731] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [61110.467733] FS: 00007f64c89fb740(0000) GS:ffff8fd5ff940000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [61110.467734] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [61110.467735] CR2: 00007f0f02bfe000 CR3: 00000020ad6dc005 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [61110.467736] PKRU: 55555554 [61110.467737] Call Trace: [61110.467738] <TASK> [61110.467739] qla2x00_module_exit+0x93/0x99 [qla2xxx] [61110.467755] ? __do_sys_delete_module.constprop.0+0x178/0x280 Free sp in the error path to fix the crash.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.002 Service Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target the different network services provided by systems to conduct a denial of service (DoS).
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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CVE-2026-23219Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
4.16 — 5.10.251 · 5.11 — 5.15.201 · 5.16 — 6.1.164

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing resource releases through dynamic analysis or stress testing.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate explicit resource-release patterns in code.

Resource-quota allocation limits the blast radius of an unreleased-resource exhaustion condition.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

ID.AM-08 mostly match
prevents

Lifecycle management explicitly requires handling resources through end-of-life including release.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent missing resource-release defects during development.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring may surface resource-exhaustion symptoms but does not address release logic.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity monitoring can detect exhaustion caused by unreleased resources but does not prevent the root defect.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

degrades

Explicit information-deletion requirements directly address timely release of resources after use.

prevents

Secure-SDLC practices include resource-management reviews, yet the control covers the entire lifecycle, not just this weakness.

prevents

Secure-coding rules can mandate explicit resource-release patterns, but the control is broader than this single weakness.

detects

Change-management processes may catch missing de-allocation during reviews, but the control itself does not target resource lifetime.

none

Configuration baselines can enforce resource limits or timeouts, indirectly reducing exposure to leaks.

References