Medium [CVE-2026-64228] avoid NULL deref when PHY driver is unbound
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-64228 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
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Summary
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 > /sys/bus/mdio_bus/drivers//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. This can lead to a kernel crash, resulting in a denial of service.
Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-476.
Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5. Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 as not affected.
Will not fix / out of support: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4. Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative. Check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists. Confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That does not mean no fix exists. Read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 3 days ago·verify at source
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