CVE-2026-98780: drm/amdgpu: fix IP instance memory leak on kobject add failure

Severity: unknown
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: 2026-10-18 · updated 2026-10-30

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amdgpu: fix IP instance memory leak on kobject add failure amdgpu_discovery_sysfs_ips() allocates ip_hw_instance with kzalloc_flex() and initializes its embedded kobject before calling kobject_add(). If kobject_add() fails, the return value is ignored and execution continues without dropping the initial kobject reference. The failed kobject is not retained in the kset list, so the normal sysfs teardown path cannot find it. As a result, ip_hw_instance_release() is never called and the ip_hw_instance allocation is leaked. Call kobject_put() when kobject_add() fails so the initial reference is dropped and ip_hw_instance_release() can free the allocation. Keep the existing best-effort sysfs behavior by continuing with the remaining IP entries after the failed registration. The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and confirmed by manual review. (cherry picked from commit 5c75fbcca8af1096d8d9415b91d8ea6212c22ee1)

Affected products

Linux: 5.18 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-98780 or the next vulnerability affects your stack