Handle leak

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A handle leak is a type of software bug that occurs when a computer program asks for a handle to a resource but does not free the handle when it is no longer used.^[1] If this occurs frequently or repeatedly over an extended period of time, a large number of handles may be marked in-use and thus unavailable, causing performance problems or a crash.

The term is derived from memory leak. Handle leaks, like memory leaks, are specific instances of resource leaks.