The vulnerability resides in the Linux kernel’s ntb_transport_tx_enqueue function. After a commit intended to drop packets when a QP link is down, the function incorrectly returns 0—signifying success—despite not queuing or freeing the packet. This contract violation causes an skb to leak for each packet transmitted during a link‑down state, leading to incremental memory consumption and potential performance degradation or local denial of service.

All Linux kernel builds that contain the faulty ntb_transport_tx_enqueue implementation and have not yet been updated with the commit that changes the error. Specific version information is not supplied by the CVE data, so any kernel deployed prior to the patch that introduced the correct behavior is considered affected.

The CVSS score is 4.1, indicating moderate impact. EPSS data is not available and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV, suggesting low exploitation activity at present. However, a local or privileged attacker who can inject packets over NTB during a QP link‑down scenario could trigger repeated memory leaks, potentially exhausting memory buffers and degrading system availability. The attack vector appears to be intra‑kernel or local, requiring the ability to enqueue packets via ntb_transport.