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CVE-2026-64120 Not scored

net: ethtool: fix NULL pointer dereference in phy_reply_size

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethtool: fix NULL pointer dereference in phy_reply_size In phy_prepare_data(), several strings such as 'name', 'drvname', 'upstream_sfp_name', and 'downstream_sfp_name' are allocated using kstrdup(). However, these allocations were not checked for failure. If kstrdup() fails for 'name', it returns NULL while the function continues. This leads to a kernel NULL pointer dereference and panic later in phy_reply_size() when it unconditionally calls strlen() on the NULL pointer. While other strings like 'upstream_sfp_name' might be checked before access in certain code paths, failing to handle these allocations consistently can lead to incomplete data reporting or hidden bugs. Fix this by adding proper NULL checks for all kstrdup() calls in phy_prepare_data() and implement a centralized error handling path using goto labels to ensure all previously allocated resources are freed on failure.

Exploit probability 0.2%
Published July 19, 2026
Required by Not available
Last source change August 15, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Linux Kernel
Unknown Unknown

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2026-64120

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethtool: fix NULL pointer dereference in phy_reply_size In phy_prepare_data(), several strings such as 'name', 'drvname', 'upstream_sfp_name', and 'downstream_sfp_name' are allocated using kstrdup(). However, these allocations were not checked for failure. If kstrdup() fails for 'name', it returns NULL while the function continues. This leads to a kernel NULL pointer dereference and panic later in phy_reply_size() when it unconditionally calls strlen() on the NULL pointer. While other strings like 'upstream_sfp_name' might be checked before access in certain code paths, failing to handle these allocations consistently can lead to incomplete data reporting or hidden bugs. Fix this by adding proper NULL checks for all kstrdup() calls in phy_prepare_data() and implement a centralized error handling path using goto labels to ensure all previously allocated resources are freed on failure.

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05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence