About this tag
Memory leaks are a recurring theme in recent WindowsForum threads, covering both Windows and Linux kernel components. On the Windows side, the Phone Link Cross Device Service in Windows 11 has been reported to consume up to 30GB of RAM, causing system sluggishness and network issues, though Microsoft has not officially confirmed the leak. On the Linux side, multiple CVEs (e.g., CVE-2026-53252, CVE-2026-46109, CVE-2026-46019, CVE-2026-46038, CVE-2026-46102, CVE-2026-46012, CVE-2026-31658) detail memory leaks in Bluetooth HCI UART, USB ULPI, Atmel AES driver, QRTR name service, stream parser, RxRPC authentication, and Altera TSE driver. These leaks often arise from small cleanup errors in error paths, posing denial-of-service risks. The threads emphasize that even unscored or low-profile kernel memory leaks matter for operational stability, especially in mixed environments with WSL or embedded Linux.
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    Phone Link Cross Device Service Reportedly Uses Up to 30GB RAM

    Windows 11 users have reported since 2023 that Phone Link’s background Cross Device Service can consume extraordinary amounts of memory—sometimes 15GB to 30GB—leaving PCs sluggish, delaying Task Manager for minutes, and, in one gaming-session report, coinciding with a severe drop in network...
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    CVE-2026-53252: Linux Kernel Bluetooth HCI UART SRCU Memory Leak Fix

    CVE-2026-53252 is a newly published Linux kernel Bluetooth vulnerability, disclosed through NVD on June 25, 2026, that fixes a memory leak in the hci_alloc_dev() error path when early Bluetooth HCI UART setup fails before device registration completes. It is not the kind of bug that should send...
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    CVE-2026-46109 Linux USB ULPI Memory Leak: Patch Discipline Without CVSS Hype

    CVE-2026-46109 is a newly published Linux kernel vulnerability from kernel.org, added to NVD on May 28, 2026, that fixes a memory leak in the USB ULPI registration path when early error handling fails before device registration completes. The bug is not a headline-grabbing remote-code-execution...
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    CVE-2026-46019: Linux Atmel AES Driver Memory Leak Fix Explained

    CVE-2026-46019 is a Linux kernel vulnerability published by NVD on May 27, 2026, after kernel.org reported that the Atmel AES crypto driver leaked three of four allocated pages during buffer cleanup because it freed one page with the wrong allocator call. It is not, on the available evidence...
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    CVE-2026-46038 QRTR Memory Leak: Fix Linux Kernel BYE Cleanup to Prevent DoS

    CVE-2026-46038 is a newly published Linux kernel vulnerability, received by NVD from kernel.org on May 27, 2026, involving a QRTR name-service memory leak when a node sends a BYE control packet and the kernel fails to free the departed node. It is not a flashy remote-code-execution bug, and NVD...
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    CVE-2026-46102: Kernel Stream Parser Memory Leak Bug Fixed—DoS Risk

    Linux kernel maintainers disclosed CVE-2026-46102 on May 27, 2026, after fixing a stream parser bug in which aborted message assembly could leave a partially built socket buffer referenced and repeatedly leak memory. The flaw is not a flashy remote-code-execution headline, and NVD had not yet...
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    CVE-2026-46012 Kernel Memory Leak: Unscored Risk and Patch Checklist

    CVE-2026-46012 is a Linux kernel vulnerability published by NVD on May 27, 2026, after kernel.org assigned a CVE to a memory-leak fix in the rxrpc authentication path, specifically the rxkad_verify_response() function used by the RxRPC subsystem. It is not yet scored by NVD, and the record is...
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    CVE-2026-31658 Fixes Linux altera-tse DMA Memory Leak After dma_map_single Failure

    CVE-2026-31658: Linux Kernel Altera TSE Driver Memory Leak Fixed After DMA Mapping Failure Published: April 26, 2026 CVE: CVE-2026-31658 Component: Linux kernel networking driver, altera-tse Affected area: Altera Triple-Speed Ethernet transmit path Issue type: Memory leak / potential...
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    CVE-2026-23403 AppArmor Kernel Bug: Memory Leak in verify_header (Fix Ubuntu)

    Microsoft has added CVE-2026-23403 to its Security Update Guide as an AppArmor flaw in the Linux kernel, describing it as a memory leak in verify_header. The headline matters because memory leaks in kernel-facing security code are rarely just housekeeping mistakes: they can create reliability...
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    CVE-2026-23339 Kernel Leak: nci_transceive Ownership Bug

    CVE-2026-23339 is a small-looking Linux kernel bug with the kind of lifecycle mistake that kernel engineers never ignore: nci_transceive() takes ownership of an skb, then returns early on several error paths without freeing it. The result is a memory leak on the -EPROTO, -EINVAL, and -EBUSY...
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    CVE-2026-22979 Linux GRO fraglist memory leak in skb_segment_list

    A recently assigned CVE, CVE-2026-22979, fixes a subtle but operationally meaningful memory-leak in the Linux network stack where skb_segment_list() mishandles socket memory accounting for GRO-aggregated packets, a bug that can leave per-socket memory counters non-zero and prevent sockets from...
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    CVE-2023-51258: Local memory leak in YASM preprocessor new_Token (1.3.0)

    A small, targeted memory leak in the YASM assembler has emerged as a quietly dangerous availability problem: CVE-2023-51258 identifies a leak in the new_Token routine of the NASM preprocessor module that can be triggered by local users and, when exploited repeatedly, can exhaust memory and deny...
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    CVE-2025-38258 Kernel Memory Leak in DAMON Memcg Path: Fix and Patch Guide

    A newly disclosed kernel flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-38258, allows an attacker with local write access to a DAMON sysfs control to repeatedly leak kernel memory by overwriting a filter’s cgroup path without freeing the previous buffer — a straightforward memory‑leak bug that has been fixed...
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    CVE-2025-21981: Linux Kernel ICE Driver aRFS Memory Leak DoS Risk

    The Linux kernel’s ICE driver contains a subtle but consequential memory-management bug that can quietly erode system availability: during certain reset-driven reconfiguration paths the driver double‑allocates accelerated Receive Flow Steering (aRFS) data structures without freeing previously...
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    CVE-2024-44971: Fixing a kernel memory leak in bcm_sf2 DSA driver

    A small, surgical change in the Linux kernel’s Distributed Switch Architecture (DSA) driver tree — a single added call to free a PHY device reference — has been cataloged as CVE-2024-44971 and carries an outsized operational meaning for network hosts that use the Broadcom Starfighter‑2 (bcm_sf2)...
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    CVE-2023-5156 Glibc getaddrinfo Memory Leak and DoS Risk (Fix in 2.39)

    The glibc library’s getaddrinfo implementation suffered a subtle — but operationally important — regression in late 2023 that introduced a memory leak capable of producing denial‑of‑service conditions in networked services: CVE‑2023‑5156 is a memory‑leak bug in getaddrinfo.c, introduced as a...
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    CVE-2025-37982: Linux wl1251 Memory Leak Fix Upstream

    A recently assigned Linux-kernel CVE — CVE-2025-37982 — tracks a memory‑leak bug in the Texas Instruments wl1251 Wi‑Fi driver (the kernel file drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl1251/tx.c). The defect causes a socket buffer (skb) dequeued from the driver's transmit queue to be lost when the driver's...
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    CVE-2025-68289 Linux Kernel Fix for USB Gadget EEM Memory Leak

    The Linux kernel vulnerability tracked as CVE‑2025‑68289 — described as "usb: gadget: f_eem: Fix memory leak in eem_unwrap" — closes a small but operationally important resource‑management hole in the USB gadget Ethernet Emulation Model (f_eem) function by hardening the error path for...
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    CVE-2025-68295: Linux CIFS SMB multiuser memory leak fixed upstream

    A narrowly scoped but operationally important memory leak in the Linux kernel SMB client has been assigned CVE-2025-68295 and fixed upstream — the bug causes leaked kernel memory when a multiuser CIFS mount is used with a domain= option together with cifscreds, and operators should prioritize...
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    Kernel eBPF Fix for CVE-2025-68744: Freeing Special Fields to Prevent Memory Leaks

    A kernel-level fix landed this week to close a subtle eBPF map bug that could make kernel-held objects persist longer than intended: CVE-2025-68744 patches a missing cleanup in the BPF percpu hash and LRU-percpu hash update path so that special fields (notably kptr reference/per-CPU pointer...