CVE-2026-45964 | SUNRPC: fix gss_auth kref leak in gss_alloc_msg error path

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: fix gss_auth kref leak in gss_alloc_msg error path Commit 5940d1cf9f42 ("SUNRPC: Rebalance a kref in auth_gss.c") added a kref_get(&gss_auth->kref) call to balance the gss_put_auth() done in gss_release_msg(), but forgot to add a corresponding kref_put() on the error path when kstrdup_const() fails. If service_name is non-NULL and kstrdup_const() fails, the function jumps to err_put_pipe_version which calls put_pipe_version() and kfree(gss_msg), but never releases the gss_auth reference. This leads to a kref leak where the gss_auth structure is never freed. Add a forward declaration for gss_free_callback() and call kref_put() in the err_put_pipe_version error path to properly release the reference taken earlier.

Published: 2026-05-27 Last update: 2026-05-27 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-45964 is rated Low Risk (7.4/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-45964

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-28 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-45964

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-45964

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-45964

GHSA-7m86-h2jr-vw87 · Severity: unknown — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: fix gss_auth kref...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-45964

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-45964 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-45964
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-45964
suse https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-45964/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-45964 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1422 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1024, ignored 169, needed 93, released 84, not-affected 33, pending 18, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-45964

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-45964

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-45964

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