Linux Kernel Memory Leak Vulnerability in Tracing Component

A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's tracing component. The issue arises in the function 'tracing_read_pipe()', where allocated memory is not properly freed. This leak has been detected by kmemleak, which reported an unreferenced object, indicating that memory management in this part of the kernel is flawed. The vulnerability allows for a gradual increase in memory usage, which could potentially lead to performance degradation or exhaustion of available memory resources.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability causes a memory leak, where allocated memory is not released, leading to increased memory usage over time. This can result in performance issues or memory exhaustion.