published September 25, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: macb: fix NULL pointer dereference on unbind with fixed-link
When the device tree describes a fixed-link and has no "mdio" child
node, macb_mii_init() returns early without allocating the MDIO bus,
leaving bp->mii_bus as NULL.
Two cleanup paths then dereference this NULL bus:
1. On driver unbind, macb_remove() unconditionally calls
mdiobus_unregister(bp->mii_bus), which oopses:
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000000004a8
pc : mdiobus_unregister+0x14/0xa4
lr : macb_remove+0x38/0xa4
Call trace:
mdiobus_unregister+0x14/0xa4 (P)
macb_remove+0x38/0xa4
platform_remove+0x20/0x30
device_release_driver_internal+0x1c8/0x224
unbind_store+0xb4/0xbc
2. On the probe error path in macb_probe(), reached when
macb_mii_init() has succeeded but a subsequent step fails, the
err_out_unregister_mdio label runs the same unconditional cleanup.
mdiobus_unregister() and mdiobus_free() do not guard against a NULL
bus, so guard the calls in both macb_remove() and the probe error
path.