CVE-2026-98008

net: macb: fix NULL pointer dereference on unbind with fixed-link

N/A
Published: September 25, 2026 at 10:23 AM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 10:17 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
N/A
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macb: fix NULL pointer dereference on unbind with fixed-link When the device tree describes a fixed-link and has no "mdio" child node, macb_mii_init() returns early without allocating the MDIO bus, leaving bp->mii_bus as NULL. Two cleanup paths then dereference this NULL bus: 1. On driver unbind, macb_remove() unconditionally calls mdiobus_unregister(bp->mii_bus), which oopses: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000000004a8 pc : mdiobus_unregister+0x14/0xa4 lr : macb_remove+0x38/0xa4 Call trace: mdiobus_unregister+0x14/0xa4 (P) macb_remove+0x38/0xa4 platform_remove+0x20/0x30 device_release_driver_internal+0x1c8/0x224 unbind_store+0xb4/0xbc 2. On the probe error path in macb_probe(), reached when macb_mii_init() has succeeded but a subsequent step fails, the err_out_unregister_mdio label runs the same unconditional cleanup. mdiobus_unregister() and mdiobus_free() do not guard against a NULL bus, so guard the calls in both macb_remove() and the probe error path.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

19088c5378c9fea54e552d8bc7418a3aa1e069905.10.2285.15.1696.1.1146.11.56.126.6.5881db1e52848694761a1aa162ce76198af9964ed8831e19e565b5210930fa183730071f8290c61263c81dcaa9cd0b66816c2ecb6c5df0b6afde9c7da5cafa5942bd2df3d80e3eeb2deb4bc050f7761f3dd0c3601f2c4e12e7689b0f46ebc17525250ea8c3
Vendor states this is fixed in 054ad8e66025eb4778d840bef80c270646cebcd2 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 38b6be101006d3e7af972999f45d4f1e8250587a (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5710f6a74f63cbba0e15cd75917234916181c9d4 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in afa224cabc0132ca414b9141b1a919ca2d318cd0 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in edb39c7666bb3924da761dfb417db85c1e5d8ad3 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f737d999fcb8f276d77b01ea4c2016ee01dad19b (fixed)
Affected range stops below 5.11, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 5.16, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.189 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.111 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.53 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.158 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2.7 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3-rc3 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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