CVE-2026-64146

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

erofs: fix metabuf leak in inode xattr initialization

commit bb88e8da0025 (erofs: use meta buffers for xattr operations) converted xattr operations to use on-stack erofs_buf instances. erofs_init_inode_xattrs() uses such a metabuf while reading the inline xattr header and shared xattr id array.

Some error paths after erofs_read_metabuf() leave through out_unlock without dropping the metabuf, so the folio reference can leak.

Consolidate the cleanup at out_unlock. erofs_put_metabuf() is a no-op if no folio has been acquired, and this keeps all paths after taking EROFS_I_BL_XATTR_BIT covered by a single cleanup site.

Weakness

The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Choose a language or tool that provides automatic memory management, or makes manual memory management less error-prone.
• For example, glibc in Linux provides protection against free of invalid pointers.
• When using Xcode to target OS X or iOS, enable automatic reference counting (ARC) [REF-391].
• To help correctly and consistently manage memory when programming in C++, consider using a smart pointer class such as std::auto_ptr (defined by ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 14882:2003), std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr (specified by an upcoming revision of the C++ standard, informally referred to as C++ 1x), or equivalent solutions such as Boost.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/492c73b21fefa36f3869cb2b188ffb7fe37b3a9b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/79b09c54c6563df9846ca3094bcfd72082c3e1d7