Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem could cause a resource leak when updating the firmware of transceiver modules. If an error occurs during the firmware flashing process, the system fails to release internal references to the network device. Over time, this could lead to system instability or prevent network interfaces from being properly shut down or removed.
Technical details
A resource leak exists in net/ethtool/module.c within the module_flash_fw_schedule() function. The code was taking a netdev reference and setting the 'module_fw_flash_in_progress' flag before all potential error paths were exhausted, without providing corresponding cleanup in the 'err_release_firmware' path. This results in a netdev reference leak if an error occurs during the firmware update scheduling. The fix reorders the operations to delay taking the reference and setting the flag until after potential failure points, relying on the rtnl_lock to ensure device persistence during the transition.
Affected products
- Linux Linux 6.11, 6.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12
Timeline
- 2026-05-22: disclosed: Initial patch submission by Jakub Kicinski
- 2026-07-19: advisory: CVE published in NVD dataset