* [CVE-2026-97473][LOW] powercap: intel_rapl: Fix memory leak in rapl_add_package_cpuslocked() [ Upstream
@ 2026-09-25 0:23 21% AL-KERNEL
0 siblings, 0 replies; 1+ results
From: AL-KERNEL @ 2026-09-25 0:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: kernel-cve
CVE: CVE-2026-97473
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: powercap: intel_rapl: Fix memory leak in rapl_add_package_cpuslocked() [ Upstream
Commit: 3e9e9337e03be946ec93f2c9d28dab242482be1b
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=3e9e9337e03be946ec93f2c9d28dab242482be1b
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97473
Analysis date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 20:23:03 -0400
ActionableScore: 0
ActionableScore lower bound: unknown
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate
Manual review required: NO
Summary:
No one-sentence report phrase was found.
======================================================================
ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-97473 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97473
The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.
The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.
Published priority for this report: LOW
Manual review required: NO
A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.
======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================
CVE-2026-97473 LOW https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-97473 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN LOW Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';*CWE-401;*CWE-772;**CWE-400;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '4.1';DESCR 'A memory leak in intel_rapl rapl_add_package_cpuslocked occurs when topology_physical_package_id or topology_logical_die_id returns a negative value after a rapl_package allocation. Repeated failed package additions can retain rapl_package objects and may eventually consume memory. For the CVSS the PR:H because reliable repeated triggering normally requires administrative control of CPU hotplug operations or driver loading in an environment with an invalid CPU topology. The issue is not network reachable. Impact is denial of service through resource exhaustion only. No memory corruption or privilege escalation primitive is indicated.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate (with actual score 0) YES INIT SIMPLEFIX LEAK ERRORPATH NO NO checked
======================================================================
ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================
ActionableScore=0
PrimitiveClass=NONE
RealUAF=NO
HostAdminRequired=YES
NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO
ImportantCandidate=NO
ManualReview=NO
AutoDowngradeAllowed=YES
1. ActionableScore
* Raw conservative score: -1
* Conservative score: 0
* Raw paranoid score: -1
* Paranoid score: 0
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate**::
The raw score is clamped to 0 because the only positive signal is a small concrete allocation leak, while reliable repeated triggering requires host-admin-equivalent CPU hotplug or driver management operations.
2. Signal breakdown
* +1 Concrete persistent kernel resource leak. `rapl_package` is allocated by `kzalloc_obj()` and is lost on the negative topology ID error path because the prior direct return bypasses `err_free_package`.
* -2 Host-admin-equivalent requirement. Repeated triggering requires host-level CPU online or offline activity, driver reprobe or reload, or equivalent management of the RAPL CPU package initialization path. These operations are not available to an ordinary user or an attacker limited to a user namespace.
* No reliable kernel crash or strong DoS point. The patch establishes a memory leak, not a crash, panic, use-after-free, or immediate host-wide failure.
* No additional resource-exhaustion point. Repetition may accumulate allocations, but the supplied patch does not establish practical host-memory exhaustion, an accounting bypass, or cross-container impact.
* No corruption primitive. There is no stale reference, out-of-bounds access, double release, refcount mutation, invalid dereference, or memory overwrite.
* No confidentiality or integrity point. The lost allocation is not shown to expose or modify protected data.
* No remote-reachability point. CPU topology handling and Intel RAPL initialization are not directly reachable through network traffic.
* No special race or timing penalty. This is a deterministic error-path cleanup omission, not a race.
* No rare-hardware penalty separately applied. Intel RAPL is hardware-specific, but the host-admin requirement already captures the practical trigger restriction and should not be double-counted.
3. Reachability analysis
The failure path is reached when `topology_physical_package_id()` or `topology_logical_die_id()` returns a negative identifier while `rapl_add_package_cpuslocked()` is adding a RAPL package.
Reliable repeated triggering is not established for an ordinary local user. Repeating package-add attempts normally requires host CPU hotplug operations, Intel RAPL driver reload or reprobe activity, or comparable host-level hardware and driver administration. These are host-admin-equivalent operations.
The negative topology result is also abnormal and normally depends on platform, firmware, virtualization topology presentation, or an inconsistent CPU topology state. The patch does not establish an attacker-controlled interface for causing that topology failure.
The complete operation is not namespace-scoped. A container or network namespace does not provide control over host CPU topology, host CPU hotplug, or the host Intel RAPL driver.
There is no network trigger, no required race, and no demonstrated user-controlled allocation pressure beyond any existing host administrative control plane.
4. Primitive and severity interpretation
The exact defect is a missing cleanup operation on an error path:
`kzalloc_obj() -> negative topology ID -> direct ERR_PTR return -> allocated rapl_package not freed`.
This is a concrete persistent memory leak, but it is not a lifetime corruption bug. No object is freed while still referenced, no stale pointer is consumed, and no second release or refcount mutation occurs.
PrimitiveClass is `NONE` because no meaningful corruption, authorization bypass, ownership violation, or lifetime primitive is established. RealUAF is `NO`.
The demonstrated consequence is a leaked `rapl_package` allocation for each failed package-addition attempt. The speculative consequence is eventual memory pressure after sustained repetition, but practical host-wide exhaustion is not established by the patch.
ImportantCandidate is `NO` because the bug is a narrow privileged error-path memory leak without a corruption or boundary-bypass primitive. AutoDowngradeAllowed is `YES` because no unresolved actionable exploitation leverage remains.
Likely operational severity is low. The issue can be processed in deferred maintenance unless the affected environment is known to repeatedly hit invalid CPU topology errors during automated CPU hotplug or RAPL driver recovery.
5. One-sentence report phrase
A missing error-path free in intel_rapl can leak one rapl_package allocation when CPU topology identification fails, but repeated triggering requires host-level CPU or driver management and no memory-corruption or privilege-escalation primitive is established.
6. Manual review recommendation
NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED
The patch establishes only a constrained allocation leak on an abnormal topology error path, with no UAF, overwrite, authorization bypass, crash, or practical below-host-admin trigger.
7. Call-site confidence
Call-site confidence: medium
======================================================================
UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================
Patch: powercap: intel_rapl: Fix memory leak in rapl_add_package_cpuslocked() [ Upstream
Commit: 3e9e9337e03be946ec93f2c9d28dab242482be1b
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=3e9e9337e03be946ec93f2c9d28dab242482be1b
Changed files:
drivers/powercap/intel_rapl_common.c
Diff excerpt:
Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.
Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=3e9e9337e03be946ec93f2c9d28dab242482be1b
======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================
The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-97473 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-97473
The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.
The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.
This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.
The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.
Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:
Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.1
The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.
CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.
A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.
Conservative ActionableScore: unknown
Paranoid ActionableScore: 0
The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.
For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:
ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR
ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0
The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.
There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).
KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.
AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW
These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).
Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is [email protected] (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).
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