CVE-2025-38537

net: phy: Don't register LEDs for genphy

published August 16, 2025

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
4.2
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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

net: phy: Don't register LEDs for genphy

If a PHY has no driver, the genphy driver is probed/removed directly in

phy_attach/detach. If the PHY's ofnode has an "leds" subnode, then the

LEDs will be (un)registered when probing/removing the genphy driver.

This could occur if the leds are for a non-generic driver that isn't

loaded for whatever reason. Synchronously removing the PHY device in

phy_detach leads to the following deadlock:

rtnl_lock()

ndo_close()

...

phy_detach()

phy_remove()

phy_leds_unregister()

led_classdev_unregister()

led_trigger_set()

netdev_trigger_deactivate()

unregister_netdevice_notifier()

rtnl_lock()

There is a corresponding deadlock on the open/register side of things

(and that one is reported by lockdep), but it requires a race while this

one is deterministic.

Generic PHYs do not support LEDs anyway, so don't bother registering

them.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00154 · 4.2th percentile
Published
2025-08-16T11:12Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 16 AUG 11:12Z
    net: phy: Don't register LEDs for genphy
    cvelistv5