CVE-2026-98074 PUBLISHED

bonding: do not clear curr_active_slave prematurely when releasing all slaves

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

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

bonding: do not clear curr_active_slave prematurely when releasing all slaves

When releasing all slaves during bond destruction (all == true), __bond_release_one() unconditionally clears bond->curr_active_slave to NULL in every iteration.

If a backup slave is released before the active slave, bond_alb_deinit_slave() triggers rlb_teach_disabled_mac_on_primary(), which increments the active slave dev promiscuity counter and sets bond_info->primary_is_promisc = 1.

Because bond->curr_active_slave was prematurely cleared to NULL when releasing the backup slave, the subsequent iteration releasing the active slave evaluates oldcurrent as NULL, so bond_change_active_slave(bond, NULL) is skipped. Consequently, bond_alb_handle_active_change() is never called to decrement the promiscuity counter, permanently leaking promiscuous mode on the physical device after bond teardown.

When oldcurrent == slave, bond_change_active_slave(bond, NULL) already sets bond->curr_active_slave to NULL. We only need to avoid selecting a new active slave when all == true. Replace the if (all) branch with if (!all && oldcurrent == slave).

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0896341a44bf04bf6149d9307fe4686006f3eee1 to d6ef22e79c2be3612868daede0e9a84f05439d9e (excl.)
  • affected from 0896341a44bf04bf6149d9307fe4686006f3eee1 to 19ba7ecfade159b3702c78a360fd7d971e2b7109 (excl.)
  • affected from 0896341a44bf04bf6149d9307fe4686006f3eee1 to 6d0ee411d5437f3d126ea6979acb83a8da29dc81 (excl.)
  • affected from 0896341a44bf04bf6149d9307fe4686006f3eee1 to af602c7aa5fedc9be3043244017aef4f26c96b70 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 3.9 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 3.9 (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-rc2 to * (incl.)

References