VulnerabilityPublished 25 Mar 2026Updated 5 Nov 2026

CVE-2026-23352: Linux kernel · x86/efi: defer freeing of boot services memory

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · fixed in f9e9cc320854a76a39e7bc92d144554f3a727fad : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 5 Nov 2026, 22:04 UTC

Severity

Unrated

Rated by Threat Radar · No CVSS score from NVD or the CNA

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

Exploitation: No evidence of active exploitation and no public proof of concept
Automatable: Attackers cannot reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
Technical impact: Limited control over the software or limited information exposure

CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-11-05.

Patch

Available – fixed in f9e9cc320854a76a39e7bc92d144554f3a727fad, a4b0bf6a40f3c107c67a24fbc614510ef5719980, 227688312fece0026fc67a00ba9a0b3611ebe95d +7

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 5 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected >=2.6.39.1 <2.6.39.2	Fixed in f9e9cc320854a76a39e7bc92d144554f3a727fad a4b0bf6a40f3c107c67a24fbc614510ef5719980 227688312fece0026fc67a00ba9a0b3611ebe95d 7131bd1fecc749bc94fb44aae217bbd8a8a85264 399da820ecfe6f4f10c143e5c453d3559a04db9c 7dcf59422a3b0d20ddda844f856b4a1e0608a326 6d8ba221e7aafaa2f284b7d22faee814c28e009d 6a25e25279282c5c8ade554c04c6ab9dc7902c64 4a2cb90c538f06c873a187aa743575d48685d7a6 2.6.39.2
LinuxLinux	Affected =3.0	Fixed in–

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/efi: defer freeing of boot services memory efi_free_boot_services() frees memory occupied by EFI_BOOT_SERVICES_CODE and EFI_BOOT_SERVICES_DATA using memblock_free_late(). There are two issue with that: memblock_free_late() should be used for memory allocated with memblock_alloc() while the memory reserved with memblock_reserve() should be freed with free_reserved_area(). More acutely, with CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT=y efi_free_boot_services() is called before deferred initialization of the memory map is complete. Benjamin Herrenschmidt reports that this causes a leak of ~140MB of RAM on EC2 t3a.nano instances which only have 512MB or RAM. If the freed memory resides in the areas that memory map for them is still uninitialized, they won't be actually freed because memblock_free_late() calls memblock_free_pages() and the latter skips uninitialized pages. Using free_reserved_area() at this point is also problematic because __free_page() accesses the buddy of the freed page and that again might end up in uninitialized part of the memory map. Delaying the entire efi_free_boot_services() could be problematic because in addition to freeing boot services memory it updates efi.memmap without any synchronization and that's undesirable late in boot when there is concurrency. More robust approach is to only defer freeing of the EFI boot services memory. Split efi_free_boot_services() in two. First efi_unmap_boot_services() collects ranges that should be freed into an array then efi_free_boot_services() later frees them after deferred init is complete.

References

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