The disclosure describes techniques that enable detection of memory leaks of software executing on devices within a computer network. An example network device includes memory and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry monitors a usage of the memory by a software component operating within the network device. The processing circuitry periodically determines a memory growth pattern score for the software component based on the usage of the memory. The processing circuitry also predicts whether the user-level process is experiencing a memory leak based on the memory growth pattern score. The processing circuitry applies confirmation criteria to current memory usage of the software component to confirm that the software component is experiencing the memory leak. When the software component is experiencing the memory leak, the processing circuitry generates an alert.