CVE-2026-72240

Technical Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mfd: sm501: Fix reference leak on failed device registration

When platform_device_register() fails in sm501_register_device(), the

embedded struct device in pdev has already been initialized by

device_initialize(), but the failure path only reports the error and

returns without dropping the device reference for the current platform

device:

sm501_register_device()

-> platform_device_register(pdev)

-> device_initialize(&pdev->dev)

-> setup_pdev_dma_masks(pdev)

-> platform_device_add(pdev)

This leads to a reference leak when platform_device_register() fails.

Fix this by calling platform_device_put() before returning the error.

The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and

confirmed by manual review.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

References