Live › vulnerability › CVE-2026-98563
Go to dashboardA failed PHY connect in the Linux kernel's phylink code leaves a pointer to a PHY that is no longer attached, and later code reads or releases it. The sources do not state what an attacker can gain beyond a crash or memory corruption.
Summary written from the sources below. Check the originals before acting.
First seen by InfraStack 2026-10-23 21:57 UTC. All times on this page are UTC.
Systems running a Linux kernel with phylink-managed network ports where the MAC implements LPI (EEE) and a PHY connect can fail, such as SFP modules or DSA switch ports whose PHY driver loads late. Systems without these hardware paths are unlikely to be affected; the sources do not say more.
No product ranges from the sources yet.
Each row is the first time that source carried this signal. The analyst’s rows are its own findings.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: phylink: record the PHY only once bringup cannot fail
phylink_bringup_phy() stores the PHY in pl->phydev before its last fallible step: on a MAC whose phylink ops implement LPI, phy_eee_rx_clock_stop() can fail with a real MDIO error. The callers unwind with phy_detach(), which knows nothing about pl->phydev, so a pointer to a PHY that is no longer attached outlives the failed connect.
What that costs depends on how the caller got here. phylink_connect_phy() goes through phylink_attach_phy(), which refuses to attach while pl->phydev is set, turning a transient MDIO error into a permanent -EBUSY. The SFP path is worse than that: sfp_sm_probe_phy() answers the failure with phy_device_remove() and phy_device_free(), and it assigns sfp->mod_phy only past that error return, so nothing clears pl->phydev and it is left pointing at a freed phy_device that phylink_resolve() and the ethtool helpers go on reading. phylink_fwnode_phy_connect() has no such check, so a later connect overwrites the stale pointer and hides the problem. A disconnect does not: phylink_disconnect_phy() hands that pointer to phy_disconnect(), and the second phy_detach() on the same PHY drops references the first one already released.
Found while making a DSA port survive a PHY whose driver arrives after the switch probes: keeping the port across a failed connect and retrying is what makes this window reachable.
Publish the pointer after the last call that can fail instead of unwinding it afterwards. Nothing between the two points reads pl->phydev, and the registration that follows cannot fail: phy_request_interrupt() falls back to polling on its own. The PHY-side state keeps the order it had, so no MDIO operation moves relative to another.
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