Unbounded Recursion Issue in Linux Kernel's Memory Management

CVE-2026-74576

What is CVE-2026-74576?

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's memory management system allows for unbounded recursion during the deallocation of memory, specifically affecting kmalloc slabs. Both kmalloc caches can inadvertently create cycles in memory allocation due to obj_exts arrays referring back to each other, thus leading to stack overflow issues. The proposed resolution involves creating a new memory allocation type, KMALLOC_NO_OBJ_EXT, to prevent cycles and control recursion depth, thereby addressing memory allocation profiling without excessive memory waste.

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