Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-97973: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macb: destroy the phylink instance on the probe error path macb_m

CVE-2026-97973 · Severity: info · Published 2026-09-25

Executive brief

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: macb: destroy the phylink instance on the probe error path

macb_mii_init() creates a phylink instance on both of its success paths, but the probe unwind frees the netdev without destroying it, so a failing macb_alloc_tieoff() or register_netdev() leaks the instance.

Destroy it at err_out_unregister_mdio, which is only reachable once macb_mii_init() has succeeded, so bp->phylink is valid there.

References