CVE-2026-64228CWE-476

CVE-2026-64228

Medium · published July 24, 2026

CVSS v3.1
5.5
EPSS
0%
Percentile
4.8
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.5 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00160 · 4.8th percentile
Weakness
CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference
Published
2026-07-24T20:16Z
Affected products (5)
ProductVersionsFixed in
linux/linux_kernel≥ 6.16, < 6.18.346.18.34
linux/linux_kernel≥ 6.19, < 7.0.117.0.11
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
References (3)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 24 JUL 15:23Z
    net: ethtool: phy: avoid NULL deref when PHY driver is unbound
    cvelistv5