{"id":"CVE-2026-99080","kind":"vulnerability","aliases":["CVE-2026-99080"],"related":[],"title":"Linux kernel: leaked xarray nodes in filesystem inodes can be forced by madvise","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nfs: Free any excess xarray nodes in clear_inode()\n\nFor many years we've had a hard to hit leak of xarray nodes.  Hugh\ndocumented it well in commit 786b31121a2c.  Recently people and\nsyzbot have found ways to force it to happen with madvise.  Rather\nthan fix the leaks where they happen, just call xa_destroy() which\nhas the side-effect of cycling the i_pages lock.","summary":"The Linux kernel's inode clearing path leaked xarray tree nodes in rare cases, and recent reports show that madvise calls can trigger the leak on demand. The fix frees any leftover nodes when an inode is cleared, which stops the memory from accumulating.","severity":"unknown","cvss":null,"epss":0.00209,"exploited":false,"exploited_at":null,"products":[],"ecosystems":[],"tags":["infrastructure","kernel","linux"],"not_affected_if":[],"how_to_check":null,"fix":null,"status":"open","published_at":"2026-10-23T13:17:32+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:34+00:00","triaged_at":"2026-10-25T04:53:37+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00","category":"infrastructure","confidence":0.5,"triage":{"at":"2026-10-25T04:53:37Z","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","output":{"fix":"unknown","reach":"local","title":"Linux kernel: leaked xarray nodes in filesystem inodes can be forced by madvise","impact":"low","summary":"The Linux kernel's inode clearing path leaked xarray tree nodes in rare cases, and recent reports show that madvise calls can trigger the leak on demand. The fix frees any leftover nodes when an inode is cleared, which stops the memory from accumulating.","category":"infrastructure","nicknames":[],"who_cares":["linux","kernel"],"confidence":0.5,"needs_auth":"unknown","worst_case":"unknown","analyst_note":"Sources give no severity, affected kernel versions or fixed commit; check the NVD entry and the upstream kernel commit referenced in the description (786b31121a2c).","how_to_check":"unknown","needs_analyst":true,"not_affected_if":[],"who_is_affected":"unknown","user_interaction":"unknown","needs_special_setup":"unknown","severity_if_unknown":"unknown"},"cost_usd":0.000516,"input_tokens":3371,"output_tokens":358,"severity_before":"unknown"},"analyst_status":null,"analyst_note":null,"search":"'-2026':15A,18A '-99080':16A,19A '786b31121a2c':106C 'accumul':66B 'call':43B,130C 'case':36B 'clear':28B,60B,84C 'commit':105C 'cve':14A,17A 'cycl':140C 'demand':49B 'destroy':132C 'document':101C 'effect':138C 'excess':80C 'filesystem':7A 'fix':51B,123C 'follow':72C 'forc':11A,115C 'found':112C 'free':52B,78C 'fs':77C 'happen':118C,128C 'hard':93C 'hit':95C 'hugh':100C 'infrastructur':20B 'inod':8A,27B,58B,85C 'kernel':2A,21B,25B,70C 'leak':3A,30B,47B,96C,125C 'leftov':54B 'linux':1A,22B,24B,69C 'lock':144C 'madvis':13A,42B,120C 'mani':87C 'memori':64B 'node':5A,33B,55B,82C,99C 'page':143C 'path':29B 'peopl':108C 'rare':35B 'rather':121C 'recent':38B,107C 'report':39B 'resolv':76C 'show':40B 'side':137C 'side-effect':136C 'stop':62B 'syzbot':110C 'tree':32B 'trigger':45B 've':90C 'vulner':73C 'way':113C 'well':103C 'xa':131C 'xarray':4A,31B,81C,98C 'year':88C","nicknames":[],"mitigations":[],"who_affected":null,"tier":"C","verified":{},"analyst_revisit_at":null,"first_public_at":"2026-10-23T13:17:32+00:00","kev":null,"cvss_vector":null,"cvss_by":null,"poc_count":0,"sources":[{"source":"nvd","external_id":"CVE-2026-99080","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-99080","severity":null,"published_at":"2026-10-23T13:17:32+00:00","modified_at":"2026-10-23T13:17:32+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:34+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-23T22:29:03+00:00","note":null},{"source":"epss","external_id":"CVE-2026-99080","url":"https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-99080","severity":null,"published_at":null,"modified_at":null,"first_seen_at":"2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00","note":null}],"documents":[],"notice":"Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai"}