[CVE-2026-64179][LOW] net: wwan: iosm: fix potential memory leaks in ipc_imem_init()

[AL-KERNEL <alkernel@kernelcve.org>]

CVE: CVE-2026-64179
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: net: wwan: iosm: fix potential memory leaks in ipc_imem_init()
Commit: f1a4d57847813fae42fbb7eb35f2dd48b9cff8a9
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=f1a4d57847813fae42fbb7eb35f2dd48b9cff8a9
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-64179
Analysis date: Sun, 19 Jul 2026 13:17:09 -0400
ActionableScore: 1
ActionableScore lower bound: 0
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like
Manual review required: NO

Summary:
The IOSM WWAN driver may leak ipc_protocol state on ipc_imem_init error paths, allowing repeated failed initialization cycles to cause limited resource exhaustion, but exploitation normally requires local device-management privileges and there is no evidence of memory corruption or privilege escalation.

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ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-64179 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-64179

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.

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AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
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CVE-2026-64179	LOW	CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN IMPORTANT	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/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: '4.7';DESCR 'The IOSM WWAN driver can leak the ipc_protocol object when ipc_imem_init fails after ipc_protocol_init has already allocated protocol state. Repeated failed initialization or reprobe cycles could accumulate leaked kernel memory and eventually cause resource exhaustion. For the CVSS the PR:L is used in the paranoid score only for deployments where a local user or service has delegated control over WWAN device reset reprobe or driver reload paths. In the typical case stronger administrative privileges are required. The issue is not network reachable and no memory corruption primitive is indicated by the code change. Impact is denial of service through memory exhaustion rather than information disclosure or privilege escalation.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like (with actual score 1)	YES	INIT LEAK ERRORPATH UAF NETWORK HARDWARE LINUS  LOWERED_FROM_HIGH_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS  DECREASED_TO_MODERATEREG_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN5 DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3	YES	NO	checked

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ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
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ActionableScore=1
ActionableScoreLower=0

## 1. ActionableScore

* Conservative score: 0
* Paranoid score: 1
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like**::

## 2. Signal breakdown

Triggered signals:

* Availability impact realistic: +1 only in the paranoid interpretation. Repeated failed probe, init, or reprobe cycles could accumulate leaked kernel memory.
* Firmware-mediated external influence: +1 possible but weak. IOSM depends on a WWAN device and firmware state, so device or firmware failures may help reach the error path.
* Requires admin/root/CAP in typical deployments: -2 for conservative scoring. Repeated driver reload, PCI reprobe, or device reset normally requires administrative control.
* Rare AND difficult-to-reach subsystem/configuration: -1. The bug affects the Intel IOSM WWAN driver and requires relevant hardware plus an init failure after ipc_protocol_init.

Not triggered:

* No generic memory corruption. The patch fixes a missing ipc_protocol_deinit call, not UAF, double free, OOB, type confusion, or arbitrary write.
* No privilege escalation plausibility.
* No confidentiality or integrity impact.
* No remote/network-triggerable path.
* No strong DoS from a single operation.

## 3. Reachability analysis

The bug is reachable during IOSM WWAN device initialization when ipc_protocol_init succeeds but a later step in ipc_imem_init fails. In normal deployments, forcing repeated probe or initialization failure requires root, driver management, PCI device control, or equivalent service-level privileges. A paranoid interpretation can treat delegated WWAN reset or reprobe control as PR:L, but there is no evidence of ordinary unprivileged reachability. The path is not network reachable. Namespace or container delegation would matter only if the container or service is explicitly given device-management capabilities.

Call-site confidence: medium. The relevant error path is visible, but broader probe and failure-control paths are not included in the snippet.

## 4. Severity interpretation

This behaves like a Low-like or ordinary Moderate resource leak, not an Important-class kernel vulnerability. The realistic impact is memory exhaustion only after repeated failed initialization cycles. There is no demonstrated memory corruption primitive and no plausible LPE path from the provided patch context. The paranoid score remains low because even sustained resource exhaustion depends on device-specific failure conditions and usually privileged control.

## 5. One-sentence report phrase

The IOSM WWAN driver may leak ipc_protocol state on ipc_imem_init error paths, allowing repeated failed initialization cycles to cause limited resource exhaustion, but exploitation normally requires local device-management privileges and there is no evidence of memory corruption or privilege escalation.

## 6. Manual review recommendation

NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED

This is a straightforward error-path memory leak with no UAF, OOB access, stale pointer reuse, security-boundary bypass, or remote trigger shown by the patch.

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UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================

Patch: net: wwan: iosm: fix potential memory leaks in ipc_imem_init()
Commit: f1a4d57847813fae42fbb7eb35f2dd48b9cff8a9
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=f1a4d57847813fae42fbb7eb35f2dd48b9cff8a9

Commit description:

The memory allocated in ipc_protocol_init() is not freed on the error
paths that follow in ipc_imem_init(). Fix that by calling the
corresponding release function ipc_protocol_deinit() in the error path.

Fixes: 3670970 ("net: iosm: shared memory IPC interface")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Abdun Nihaal <nihaal@cse.iitm.ac.in>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260519062815.55545-1-nihaal@cse.iitm.ac.in
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

Changed files:
  drivers/net/wwan/iosm/iosm_ipc_imem.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=f1a4d57847813fae42fbb7eb35f2dd48b9cff8a9

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DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-64179 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-64179

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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.7

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: 0
  Paranoid ActionableScore: 1

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 alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).