Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Microsoft Azure Network Adapter (MANA) driver can cause a system crash (kernel panic). This occurs when the system fails to resume from a low-power state, leading to a technical error where the driver tries to clean up its resources twice. This could result in a denial-of-service, impacting the availability of the affected server or virtual machine.
Technical details
A vulnerability exists in the mana_remove() function within drivers/net/ethernet/microsoft/mana/mana_en.c of the Linux kernel. When a Power Management (PM) resume fails, mana_probe() calls mana_remove(), which clears gdma_context and driver_data. However, because the driver is not automatically unbound after a failed resume, a subsequent manual or system unbind triggers mana_remove() a second time. This second invocation lacks a NULL check, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when accessing gc->dev. The fix introduces a guard clause to return early if the context is already NULL. This issue affects Linux kernels from version 5.16 onwards and has been patched in various stable branches including 6.18.33 and 7.0.10.
Affected products
- Linux Linux 5.16 to 6.18.33, 7.0.10
Timeline
- 2026-04-20: disclosed: Initial patch submission
- 2026-06-26: advisory: CVE published and NVD record created