In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/nouveau: Fix bridge reference leak in nv1a_ram_new()… (CVE-2026-98516)

The vulnerability in the Linux kernel's drm/nouveau component was due to pci_get_domain_bus_and_slot() acquiring a reference to a PCI device that was not properly released in the nv1a_ram_new() function after reading the memory size from the device's config space. This caused a bridge reference leak. The fix involves dropping the PCI device reference before returning from the function, resolving the leak.

The impact is a resource leak (bridge reference leak) in the kernel's PCI device handling within the nouveau DRM driver. This could lead to resource exhaustion or stability issues in affected systems if the leak accumulates over time. No direct exploitation or active exploits are known.

A fix has been applied to the Linux kernel to properly release the PCI device reference in nv1a_ram_new(). Users should update to the patched kernel version containing this fix. No additional mitigation steps are indicated.