VulnerabilityPublished 24 Jun 2026Updated 7 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-53060: Linux kernel · dm cache metadata: fix memory leak on metadata abort retry

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · patch available : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 24 Jun 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 26 Oct 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.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux@7.0.0-28.28?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-5.5 – 7.0.0-28.28 18 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux-aws`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws@7.0.0-1008.8?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1002.2 – 7.0.0-1008.8 9 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux-azure`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure@7.0.0-1009.9?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1003.3 – 7.0.0-1009.9 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux-azure-fde`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-fde@7.0.0-1008.8?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 7.0.0-1003.3 – 7.0.0-1008.8 4 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux-gcp`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gcp@7.0.0-1008.8?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1002.2 – 7.0.0-1008.8 9 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 26.04 LTSlinux-gke`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gke@7.0.0-1003.4?arch=source&distro=resolute`Other threats	Affected =7.0.0-1002.3 =7.0.0-1003.4	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm cache metadata: fix memory leak on metadata abort retry When failing to acquire the root_lock in dm_cache_metadata_abort because the block_manager is read-only, the temporary block_manager created outside the root_lock is not properly released, causing a memory leak. Reproduce steps: This can be reproduced by reloading a new table while the metadata is read-only. While the second call to dm_cache_metadata_abort is caused by lack of support for table preload in dm-cache, mentioned in commit 9b1cc9f251af ("dm cache: share cache-metadata object across inactive and active DM tables"), it exposes the memory leak in dm_cache_metadata_abort when the function is called multiple times. Specifically, dm-cache fails to sync the new cache object's mode during preresume, creating the reproducer condition. This issue could also occur through concurrent metadata_operation_failed calls due to races in cache mode updates, but the table preload scenario below provides a reliable reproducer. 1. Create a cache device with some faulty trailing metadata blocks dmsetup create cmeta <<EOF 0 200 linear /dev/sdc 0 200 7992 error EOF dmsetup create cdata --table "0 131072 linear /dev/sdc 8192" dmsetup create corig --table "0 262144 linear /dev/sdc 262144" dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/cmeta bs=4k count=1 oflag=direct dmsetup create cache --table "0 131072 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \ /dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 1 writethrough smq 0" 2. Suspend and resume the cache to start a new metadata transaction and trigger metadata io errors on the next metadata commit. dmsetup suspend cache dmsetup resume cache 3. Write to the cache device to update metadata fio --filename=/dev/mapper/cache --name test --rw=randwrite --bs=4k \ --randrepeat=0 --direct=1 --size 64k 4. Preload the same table dmsetup reload cache --table "$(dmsetup table cache)" 5. Resume the new table. This triggers the memory leak. dmsetup suspend cache dmsetup resume cache kmemleak logs: <snip> unreferenced object 0xffff8880080c2010 (size 16): comm "dmsetup", pid 132, jiffies 4294982580 hex dump (first 16 bytes): 00 38 b9 07 80 88 ff ff 6a 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b a5 ... backtrace (crc 3118f31c): kmemleak_alloc+0x28/0x40 __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x3d9/0x510 dm_block_manager_create+0x51/0x140 dm_cache_metadata_abort+0x85/0x320 metadata_operation_failed+0x103/0x1e0 cache_preresume+0xacd/0xe70 dm_table_resume_targets+0xd3/0x320 __dm_resume+0x1b/0xf0 dm_resume+0x127/0x170 <snip>

GCVE source: db.gcve.eu
OSV ID: UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53060
Osv Schema Version: 1.7.0
Ecosystems: Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-preview:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:25.10, Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
CVSS version: 3.1

References

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