CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-46283

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.12%

2th percentile - higher than 2% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the TPM driver's tpm_dev_release() function uses kfree() instead of kfree_sensitive() to free the auth structure containing sensitive cryptographic data (HMAC session keys, nonces, passwords). Other code paths use kfree_sensitive(), leading to inconsistency and leaving sensitive data in memory.

Risk Assessment

Sensitive cryptographic material may remain in unzeroed memory after being freed, allowing an attacker with memory access (e.g., via cold boot attack or other vulnerabilities) to recover it.

Recommendation

Apply a Linux kernel update that changes kfree() to kfree_sensitive() in tpm_dev_release().

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tpm: Use kfree_sensitive() to free auth session in tpm_dev_release() tpm_dev_release() uses plain kfree() to free chip->auth, which contains sensitive cryptographic material including HMAC session keys, nonces, and passphrase data (struct tpm2_auth). Every other code path that frees this structure uses kfree_sensitive() to zero the memory before releasing it: both tpm2_end_auth_session() and tpm_buf_check_hmac_response() do so. The tpm_dev_release() path is the only one that does not, leaving key material in freed slab memory until it is eventually overwritten. Use kfree_sensitive() for consistency with the rest of the driver and to ensure session keys are scrubbed during device teardown.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS