Medium [CVE-2026-72406] fix probe error cleanup
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72406.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: sungem: fix probe error cleanup gem_init_one() calls gem_remove_one() when register_netdev() fails. gem_remove_one() unregisters and frees resources owned by the net_device, including the DMA block, MMIO mapping, PCI regions, and the net_device itself. gem_init_one() then falls through to its own cleanup labels and frees the same resources again.
Keep the register_netdev() error path in gem_init_one(): clear drvdata so PM/remove paths do not see a half-registered device, remove the NAPI instance added during probe, and let the existing cleanup labels release the resources once. The issue was found by a local static-analysis checker for probe error paths.
The reported path was manually inspected before sending this fix. Compile-tested with CONFIG_SUNGEM=y.
Runtime testing was not performed because no sungem hardware is available. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's sungem network driver.
During device initialization, if `register_netdev()` fails, the `gem_init_one()` function incorrectly calls `gem_remove_one()`, which frees allocated resources. This double-free vulnerability can lead to system instability or a denial of service (DoS).
Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-1341.
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 2 hours 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 2 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
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