CVE-2026-53234

HIGH

net: ibm: emac: Fix use-after-free during device removal

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ibm: emac: Fix use-after-free during device removal The driver was using devm_register_netdev() which causes unregister_netdev() to be deferred until the devres cleanup phase, which runs after emac_remove() returns. This creates a use-after-free window where: 1. emac_remove() is called, which tears down hardware (cancels work, detaches modules, unregisters from MAL) 2. emac_remove() returns 3. devres cleanup runs and finally calls unregister_netdev() During step 3, the network stack might still process packets, triggering emac_irq(), emac_poll(), or other handlers that access now-freed hardware resources (dev->emacp, dev->mal, etc.). Fix this by replacing devm_register_netdev() with manual register_netdev() and calling unregister_netdev() at the beginning of emac_remove(), before any hardware teardown. This ensures the network device is fully stopped and unregistered before hardware resources are released. The change is safe because: - dev->ndev is assigned very early in probe (before any error paths that could bypass emac_remove) - platform_set_drvdata() is only called after successful registration, so emac_remove() only runs for fully registered devices - unregister_netdev() is idempotent and safe to call on any registered device

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0013
EPSS Percentile 3.1%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-416
Status published
Products (15)
linux/Kernel 6.12.0 - 6.12.94linux
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.18.36linux
linux/Kernel 6.19.0 - 7.0.13linux
Linux/Linux < 6.12
Linux/Linux 6.12
Linux/Linux 6.12.94 - 6.12.*
Linux/Linux 6.18.36 - 6.18.*
Linux/Linux 7.0.13 - 7.0.*
Linux/Linux 7.1
Linux/Linux a4dd8535a527061a01f2fd335596fa77ca240a96 - a0130d682222ae21afc395aead7cd2d87e1a8358
... and 5 more
Published Jun 25, 2026
Tracked Since Jun 25, 2026