CVE-2026-31728 PUBLISHED

usb: gadget: u_ether: Fix race between gether_disconnect and eth_stop

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 09.03.2026 Published: 01.05.2026 Updated: 01.05.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

usb: gadget: u_ether: Fix race between gether_disconnect and eth_stop

A race condition between gether_disconnect() and eth_stop() leads to a NULL pointer dereference. Specifically, if eth_stop() is triggered concurrently while gether_disconnect() is tearing down the endpoints, eth_stop() attempts to access the cleared endpoint descriptor, causing the following NPE:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference Call trace: __dwc3_gadget_ep_enable+0x60/0x788 dwc3_gadget_ep_enable+0x70/0xe4 usb_ep_enable+0x60/0x15c eth_stop+0xb8/0x108

Because eth_stop() crashes while holding the dev->lock, the thread running gether_disconnect() fails to acquire the same lock and spins forever, resulting in a hardlockup:

Core - Debugging Information for Hardlockup core(7) Call trace: queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x94/0x488 _raw_spin_lock+0x64/0x6c gether_disconnect+0x19c/0x1e8 ncm_set_alt+0x68/0x1a0 composite_setup+0x6a0/0xc50

The root cause is that the clearing of dev->port_usb in gether_disconnect() is delayed until the end of the function.

Move the clearing of dev->port_usb to the very beginning of gether_disconnect() while holding dev->lock. This cuts off the link immediately, ensuring eth_stop() will see dev->port_usb as NULL and safely bail out.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to f02980594deef751e42133714aee25228f1494c6 (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to e1e7a66584bf0aff3becb73c19fa31527889fc9e (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to a259ba0bce3b192c04334499690372a250f7d0b1 (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to f6813c2b2ae78def76b69e0f9d72f80e4a1c4aca (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to bbb09bb89ffa571475f66daca9482b974cd29d6a (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to 6ad77458637b78ec655e3da5f112c862e6690a9d (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to 8ff689edfeceb5e3ec1623e09af2b2aa0f1098a8 (excl.)
  • affected from 2b3d942c4878084a37991a65e66512c02b8fa2ad to e1eabb072c75681f78312c484ccfffb7430f206e (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 2.6.27 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 2.6.27 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.253 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.203 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.169 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.134 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.81 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.22 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.12 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References