Linux Kernel Memory Leak Vulnerability in TCP Connection Request Handling

A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's TCP connection request processing. When the function 'inet_csk_reqsk_queue_hash_add()' fails, the 'tcp_conn_request()' function exits without releasing the destination memory allocated during the routing request. This oversight leads to unreferenced memory objects, causing a memory leak. The vulnerability was discovered through the kernel memory leak detector, kmemleak.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability leads to a memory leak, where allocated memory is not properly released, potentially causing increased memory usage and degradation of system performance over time.