Linux Kernel TIPC Memory Leak Vulnerability in Message Transmission

A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication) subsystem. The issue arises in the 'tipc_link_xmit' function, which handles the transmission of system-importance messages. When the backlog transmit queue for these messages becomes overloaded, 'tipc_link_xmit' returns an 'ENOBUFS' error. However, the function does not clear the socket buffer (skb) list, leading to a memory leak as new skb allocations fail. This vulnerability affects several versions of the Linux kernel.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability leads to a memory leak, causing failures when allocating new socket buffers. This can result in degraded system performance or instability, as the memory leak consumes resources without being released.