CVE-2026-97973 PUBLISHED

net: macb: destroy the phylink instance on the probe error path

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 25.09.2026 Published: 25.09.2026 Updated: 25.09.2026

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

net: macb: destroy the phylink instance on the probe error path

macb_mii_init() creates a phylink instance on both of its success paths, but the probe unwind frees the netdev without destroying it, so a failing macb_alloc_tieoff() or register_netdev() leaks the instance.

Destroy it at err_out_unregister_mdio, which is only reachable once macb_mii_init() has succeeded, so bp->phylink is valid there.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 7897b071ac3b45a5788d084fc7f8a8ee9e5f07f0 to 23b6a44ffea1c54a4232aa86ee470b21422a8cc5 (excl.)
  • affected from 7897b071ac3b45a5788d084fc7f8a8ee9e5f07f0 to e92a45b872b035c79acde8dd0da096a72b61ff2f (excl.)
  • affected from 7897b071ac3b45a5788d084fc7f8a8ee9e5f07f0 to 8558e3195664113c14a4d8fcf221b3caff41fed1 (excl.)
  • affected from 7897b071ac3b45a5788d084fc7f8a8ee9e5f07f0 to 7d059f390750152b9bd69df934198651b94fc26d (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.5 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.5 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.111 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.53 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.7 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc3 to * (incl.)

References