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Unscored CVE-2025-71152 EUVD-2026-4398GHSA-cc5p-pmc6-4cgc

net: dsa: properly keep track of conduit reference

Published Jan 23, 2026 · Updated Oct 30, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-aws-hwe Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-4.15 Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.17 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.8 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-4.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.17 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.17 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-iot Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.17 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.17 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.17 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

net: dsa: properly keep track of conduit reference

Problem description
-------------------

DSA has a mumbo-jumbo of reference handling of the conduit net device
and its kobject which, sadly, is just wrong and doesn't make sense.

There are two distinct problems.

1. The OF path, which uses of_find_net_device_by_node(), never releases
the elevated refcount on the conduit's kobject. Nominally, the OF and
non-OF paths should result in objects having identical reference
counts taken, and it is already suspicious that
dsa_dev_to_net_device() has a put_device() call which is missing in
dsa_port_parse_of(), but we can actually even verify that an issue
exists. With CONFIG_DEBUG_KOBJECT_RELEASE=y, if we run this command
"before" and "after" applying this patch:

(unbind the conduit driver for net device eno2)
echo 0000:00:00.2 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/fsl_enetc/unbind

we see these lines in the output diff which appear only with the patch
applied:

kobject: 'eno2' (ffff002009a3a6b8): kobject_release, parent 0000000000000000 (delayed 1000)
kobject: '109' (ffff0020099d59a0): kobject_release, parent 0000000000000000 (delayed 1000)

2. After we find the conduit interface one way (OF) or another (non-OF),
it can get unregistered at any time, and DSA remains with a long-lived,
but in this case stale, cpu_dp->conduit pointer. Holding the net
device's underlying kobject isn't actually of much help, it just
prevents it from being freed (but we never need that kobject
directly). What helps us to prevent the net device from being
unregistered is the parallel netdev reference mechanism (dev_hold()
and dev_put()).

Actually we actually use that netdev tracker mechanism implicitly on
user ports since commit 2f1e8ea726e9 ("net: dsa: link interfaces with
the DSA master to get rid of lockdep warnings"), via netdev_upper_dev_link().
But time still passes at DSA switch probe time between the initial
of_find_net_device_by_node() code and the user port creation time, time
during which the conduit could unregister itself and DSA wouldn't know
about it.

So we have to run of_find_net_device_by_node() under rtnl_lock() to
prevent that from happening, and release the lock only with the netdev
tracker having acquired the reference.

Do we need to keep the reference until dsa_unregister_switch() /
dsa_switch_shutdown()?
1: Maybe yes. A switch device will still be registered even if all user
ports failed to probe, see commit 86f8b1c01a0a ("net: dsa: Do not
make user port errors fatal"), and the cpu_dp->conduit pointers
remain valid. I haven't audited all call paths to see whether they
will actually use the conduit in lack of any user port, but if they
do, it seems safer to not rely on user ports for that reference.
2. Definitely yes. We support changing the conduit which a user port is
associated to, and we can get into a situation where we've moved all
user ports away from a conduit, thus no longer hold any reference to
it via the net device tracker. But we shouldn't let it go nonetheless
- see the next change in relation to dsa_tree_find_first_conduit()
and LAG conduits which disappear.
We have to be prepared to return to the physical conduit, so the CPU
port must explicitly keep another reference to it. This is also to
say: the user ports and their CPU ports may not always keep a
reference to the same conduit net device, and both are needed.

As for the conduit's kobject for the /sys/class/net/ entry, we don't
care about it, we can release it as soon as we hold the net device
object itself.

History and blame attribution
-----------------------------

The code has been refactored so many times, it is very difficult to
follow and properly attribute a blame, but I'll try to make a short
history which I hope to be correct.

We have two distinct probing paths:
- one for OF, introduced in 2016 i
---truncated---

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 4.8 6.1.191

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.18.5-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.85-1 —
Debian 12 linux No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 24.04 LTS linux-bluefield 6.8.0-1028.33 —
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 linux 6.17.0-29.29 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-aws +1 6.17.0-1015.15 USN-8310-1, USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-azure-fde No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-gcp 6.17.0-1018.19 USN-8374-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-oracle 6.17.0-1014.14 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-raspi 6.17.0-1017.17 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-realtime 6.17.0-1013.15 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-riscv 6.17.0-29.29.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-136.136 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1061.64 USN-8595-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws-6.17 6.17.0-1017.17~24.04.1 USN-8374-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1063.71 USN-8606-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-6.17 6.17.0-1015.15~24.04.1 USN-8310-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fde 6.8.0-1062.69 USN-8607-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1064.72 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.17 6.17.0-1018.19~24.04.1 USN-8374-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1059.67 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1046.50 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.17 6.17.0-29.29~24.04.1 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1061.62 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-lowlatency 6.8.0-136.136.2 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1059.62 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.17 6.17.0-1026.26 USN-8508-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1059.62.1 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 6.8.0-1030.31 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.17 6.17.0-1023.23 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1058.61 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.17 6.17.0-1014.14~24.04.1 USN-8277-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1061.65 USN-8665-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +19 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.17 6.17.0-29.29.1~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-vmware 6.8.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-xilinx 6.8.0-1033.34 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1061.64~22.04.1 USN-8595-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1063.71~22.04.1 USN-8606-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-fde-6.8 6.8.0-1062.69~22.04.1 USN-8609-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1064.72~22.04.1 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.1 USN-8619-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1061.62~22.04.1 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-136.136.2~22.04.1 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1059.62~22.04.1 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1058.61~22.04.1 USN-8595-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.8 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.3 —
Show 16 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2050.52 USN-8665-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1056.57 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.17 6.17.0-1013.15~24.04.1 USN-8277-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1056.57~22.04.2 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-aws-fips 6.8.0-1061.64+fips1 USN-8595-3
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fips 6.8.0-1063.71+fips2 USN-8608-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips 6.8.0-136.136+fips2 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-fips 6.8.0-1064.72+fips1 USN-8574-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux +21 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS linux +12 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux-gcp +4 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS linux-azure No fix yet —

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel 6.6.130.1-3 —
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) kernel No fix yet —

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 kernel-uek +34 6.12.0-204.92.4.2.el10uek ELSA-2026-50372

Advisories 21

References