CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-64228

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the ethtool PHY helper has a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability when the PHY driver is unbound via sysfs. The phy_remove() function clears the drv pointer but does not detach the device, causing a crash when reading the driver name.

Risk Assessment

NULL pointer dereference may cause a kernel panic when querying PHY state via ethtool.

Recommendation

Update the kernel to a version that includes the fix, which skips driver name allocation when no driver is bound.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethtool: phy: avoid NULL deref when PHY driver is unbound phydev->drv can become NULL while the phy_device is still attached to its net_device, namely after the PHY driver is unbound via sysfs: echo <mdio_id> > /sys/bus/mdio_bus/drivers/<phy_drv>/unbind phy_remove() clears phydev->drv but doesn't call phy_detach(), so the phy_device stays in the link topology xarray and ethnl_req_get_phydev() still hands it back. ETHTOOL_MSG_PHY_GET then oopses on: rep_data->drvname = kstrdup(phydev->drv->name, GFP_KERNEL); drvname is already treated as optional by phy_reply_size(), phy_fill_reply() and phy_cleanup_data(), so just skip the allocation when there is no driver bound.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS