CVE-2026-63929: iio: buffer: Fix DMA fence leak in iio_buffer_enqueue_dmabuf()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-07-19 · updated 2026-10-30
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iio: buffer: Fix DMA fence leak in iio_buffer_enqueue_dmabuf() iio_buffer_enqueue_dmabuf() allocates a struct iio_dma_fence (104 bytes, kmalloc-128) via kmalloc_obj()+dma_fence_init(), which sets the initial kref to 1. It then calls dma_resv_add_fence() which takes a second reference (kref=2), and stores a raw pointer in block->fence. On the success path the function returns without calling dma_fence_put() to release the initial reference, so every buffer enqueue permanently leaks one kmalloc-128 allocation. The iio_buffer_cleanup() work item only releases the temporary reference taken during completion signalling by iio_buffer_signal_dmabuf_done(); the initial reference from dma_fence_init() is never released. With four iio_rwdev instances at 240kHz and 512 samples per buffer, this produces ~1875 kmalloc-128 allocations per second matching the observed slab growth exactly. A test with ftrace confirmed that the dma_fence_destroy event was never triggered. Fix by calling dma_fence_put() after dma_resv_add_fence(), transferring ownership of the fence to the DMA reservation object. The DMA fence then gets properly discarded after being signalled.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.11 before 6.12.93; from 6.13 before 6.18.35; from 6.19 before 7.0.12; 7.1-rc1, 7.1-rc2, 7.1-rc3, 7.1-rc4, 7.1-rc5 — fixed in 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12
Linux kernel: 6.11 — fixed in 7.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12; Linux kernel 7.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-63929 or the next vulnerability affects your stack