CVE-2026-43041
Linux Kernel 5.6 – 5.10.253
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2026-43041 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) 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 5th 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
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-26640
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: qrtr: replace qrtr_tx_flow radix_tree with xarray to fix memory leak __radix_tree_create() allocates and links intermediate nodes into the tree one by one. If a subsequent allocation fails, the already-linked…
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nodes remain in the tree with no corresponding leaf entry. These orphaned internal nodes are never reclaimed because radix_tree_for_each_slot() only visits slots containing leaf values. The radix_tree API is deprecated in favor of xarray. As suggested by Matthew Wilcox, migrate qrtr_tx_flow from radix_tree to xarray instead of fixing the radix_tree itself [1]. xarray properly handles cleanup of internal nodes — xa_destroy() frees all internal xarray nodes when the qrtr_node is released, preventing the leak. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260225071623.41275-1-jiayuan.chen@linux.dev/T/
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.
Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
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.
Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.