Linux Kernel: NULL Pointer Dereference (CVE-2026-98922)
Published Last modified Sources: BSI, CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: emac: move setting of netops to fix crash fixes the following crash on driver initialization: |BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000158 |Faulting instruction address: 0xc0566b40 |Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] |BE PAGE_SIZE=4K PowerPC 44x Platform |Modules linked in: |CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: GW 7.3.0-rc3+ #1 |Tainted: [W]=WARN |Hardware name: MyBook Live APM821XX 0x12c41c83 PowerPC 44x Platform |NIP: c0566b40 LR: c05648f8 CTR: c04c1e9c |REGS: c1053a20 TRAP: 0300 Tainted: GW (7.3.0-rc3+) |MSR: 0002b000 <CE,EE,FP,ME> CR: 24008808 XER: 00000000 |DEAR: 00000158 ESR: 00000000 |GPR00: c05648f8 c1053b10 c1063600 c1030000 c5ab3000 00000000 [...] |GPR08: 00000002 00000000 00000000 c1053b40 84002808 00000000 [...] |GPR16: cfffd210 00000002 c0beafcc cfffc960 00000000 c1030644 [...] |GPR24: c0beafbc c1037000 00000000 0000000a 00000000 c1030000 [...] |NIP [c0566b40] phy_link_topo_add_phy+0x2c/0x1d0 |LR [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |Call Trace: |[c1053b10] [c0811e04] klist_put+0x54/0xb4 (unreliable) |[c1053b40] [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |[c1053b70] [c0564ae8] phy_connect_direct+0x2c/0x60 |[c1053b90] [c056c7a8] of_phy_connect+0x50/0x74 |[c1053bc0] [c0572a88] emac_probe+0xd50/0x119c |[c1053c90] [c04cb770] platform_probe+0x74/0xa4 |[c1053cb0] [c04c8f08] really_probe+0x120/0x2b0 |[c1053cd0] [c04c9254] __driver_probe_device+0x1bc/0x1fc |[c1053d00] [c04c9334] driver_probe_device+0x38/0xa8 |[c1053d30] [c04c9560] __driver_attach+0xf4/0x10c |[c1053d50] [c04c6af8] bus_for_each_dev+0x68/0xd0 |[c1053d90] [c04c7c34] bus_add_driver+0xcc/0x1ec |[c1053dc0] [c04c9f6c] driver_register+0xcc/0x110 |[c1053de0] [c0aa3f40] emac_init+0x1c4/0x200 This bug showed up starting with v7.3-rc1. At the NIP in phy_link_topo_add_phy() is a netdev_need_ops_lock() check.
Update Linux Kernel to version 7.2.9, Linux Kernel to version 7.3.
- Affected
- Linux Kernel
lt 7.2..7.2.9
- Linux Kernel
- Fixed in
- Linux Kernel
7.2.9 - Linux Kernel
7.3
- Linux Kernel
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Metrics
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Priority
No value is available for this vulnerability.
—
CVSS v3
No value is available for this vulnerability.
0.2 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 4.7
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Not rated
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 30.18 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.2 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 4.7
- Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
Detection rules
No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: emac: move setting of netops to fix crash fixes the following crash on driver initialization: |BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000158 |Faulting instruction address: 0xc0566b40 |Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] |BE PAGE_SIZE=4K PowerPC 44x Platform |Modules linked in: |CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: GW 7.3.0-rc3+ #1 |Tainted: [W]=WARN |Hardware name: MyBook Live APM821XX 0x12c41c83 PowerPC 44x Platform |NIP: c0566b40 LR: c05648f8 CTR: c04c1e9c |REGS: c1053a20 TRAP: 0300 Tainted: GW (7.3.0-rc3+) |MSR: 0002b000 <CE,EE,FP,ME> CR: 24008808 XER: 00000000 |DEAR: 00000158 ESR: 00000000 |GPR00: c05648f8 c1053b10 c1063600 c1030000 c5ab3000 00000000 [...] |GPR08: 00000002 00000000 00000000 c1053b40 84002808 00000000 [...] |GPR16: cfffd210 00000002 c0beafcc cfffc960 00000000 c1030644 [...] |GPR24: c0beafbc c1037000 00000000 0000000a 00000000 c1030000 [...] |NIP [c0566b40] phy_link_topo_add_phy+0x2c/0x1d0 |LR [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |Call Trace: |[c1053b10] [c0811e04] klist_put+0x54/0xb4 (unreliable) |[c1053b40] [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |[c1053b70] [c0564ae8] phy_connect_direct+0x2c/0x60 |[c1053b90] [c056c7a8] of_phy_connect+0x50/0x74 |[c1053bc0] [c0572a88] emac_probe+0xd50/0x119c |[c1053c90] [c04cb770] platform_probe+0x74/0xa4 |[c1053cb0] [c04c8f08] really_probe+0x120/0x2b0 |[c1053cd0] [c04c9254] __driver_probe_device+0x1bc/0x1fc |[c1053d00] [c04c9334] driver_probe_device+0x38/0xa8 |[c1053d30] [c04c9560] __driver_attach+0xf4/0x10c |[c1053d50] [c04c6af8] bus_for_each_dev+0x68/0xd0 |[c1053d90] [c04c7c34] bus_add_driver+0xcc/0x1ec |[c1053dc0] [c04c9f6c] driver_register+0xcc/0x110 |[c1053de0] [c0aa3f40] emac_init+0x1c4/0x200 This bug showed up starting with v7.3-rc1. At the NIP in phy_link_topo_add_phy() is a netdev_need_ops_lock() check. This was added by the following commit ded86da4bbb7 ("net: ethtool: relax ethnl_req_get_phydev() locking assertion") The bug shows up because at the time of_phy_connect() was called, the netdev_ops were *not yet* determined. My fix is to move the code that sets netdev_ops+commac.ops+ethtool_ops further up as emac_init_config() derives that by looking at the device-tree and sets the required dev->phy_mode accordingly. During review, the Sashiko bot's AI stated that the commac assignment became a dead store. Great catch! To keep the original behavior as-is, one mentioned option "set dev->commac.ops = &emac_commac_ops only in the non-gige case?" sounded like a great plan. So the dev->commac.ops assignment for the non-gige-case moves into the else block. This patch was tested on a WD MyBook Live (RGMII). the device now works again.
Source: BSI CSAF, BSI WID Portal, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux |
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Vendors and products
References & sources
- git.kernel.orgstable/c/7c9f391ec89cb621d7af375ace2eb9a6248e5b9d
- git.kernel.orgstable/c/c664cca8f622e66bea6a94279ae2611f1d1c0c67
Changes to this CVE
Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).
ReceivedLinux
Description added or changed
Show 4 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Description added —In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: emac: move setting of netops to fix crash fixes the following crash on driver initialization: |BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000158 |Faulting instruction address: 0xc0566b40 |Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] |BE PAGE_SIZE=4K PowerPC 44x Platform |Modules linked in: |CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: GW 7.3.0-rc3+ #1 |Tainted: [W]=WARN |Hardware name: MyBook Live APM821XX 0x12c41c83 PowerPC 44x Platform |NIP: c0566b40 LR: c05648f8 CTR: c04c1e9c |REGS: c1053a20 TRAP: 0300 Tainted: GW (7.3.0-rc3+) |MSR: 0002b000 <CE,EE,FP,ME> CR: 24008808 XER: 00000000 |DEAR: 00000158 ESR: 00000000 |GPR00: c05648f8 c1053b10 c1063600 c1030000 c5ab3000 00000000 [...] |GPR08: 00000002 00000000 00000000 c1053b40 84002808 00000000 [...] |GPR16: cfffd210 00000002 c0beafcc cfffc960 00000000 c1030644 [...] |GPR24: c0beafbc c1037000 00000000 0000000a 00000000 c1030000 [...] |NIP [c0566b40] phy_link_topo_add_phy+0x2c/0x1d0 |LR [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |Call Trace: |[c1053b10] [c0811e04] klist_put+0x54/0xb4 (unreliable) |[c1053b40] [c05648f8] phy_attach_direct+0x1a4/0x368 |[c1053b70] [c0564ae8] phy_connect_direct+0x2c/0x60 |[c1053b90] [c056c7a8] of_phy_connect+0x50/0x74 |[c1053bc0] [c0572a88] emac_probe+0xd50/0x119c |[c1053c90] [c04cb770] platform_probe+0x74/0xa4 |[c1053cb0] [c04c8f08] really_probe+0x120/0x2b0 |[c1053cd0] [c04c9254] __driver_probe_device+0x1bc/0x1fc |[c1053d00] [c04c9334] driver_probe_device+0x38/0xa8 |[c1053d30] [c04c9560] __driver_attach+0xf4/0x10c |[c1053d50] [c04c6af8] bus_for_each_dev+0x68/0xd0 |[c1053d90] [c04c7c34] bus_add_driver+0xcc/0x1ec |[c1053dc0] [c04c9f6c] driver_register+0xcc/0x110 |[c1053de0] [c0aa3f40] emac_init+0x1c4/0x200 This bug showed up starting with v7.3-rc1. At the NIP in phy_link_topo_add_phy() is a netdev_need_ops_lock() check. This was added by the following commit ded86da4bbb7 ("net: ethtool: relax ethnl_req_get_phydev() locking assertion") The bug shows up because at the time of_phy_connect() was called, the netdev_ops were *not yet* determined. My fix is to move the code that sets netdev_ops+commac.ops+ethtool_ops further up as emac_init_config() derives that by looking at the device-tree and sets the required dev->phy_mode accordingly. During review, the Sashiko bot's AI stated that the commac assignment became a dead store. Great catch! To keep the original behavior as-is, one mentioned option "set dev->commac.ops = &emac_commac_ops only in the non-gige case?" sounded like a great plan. So the dev->commac.ops assignment for the non-gige-case moves into the else block. This patch was tested on a WD MyBook Live (RGMII). the device now works again.Affected versions (publisher) added —New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/98xxx/CVE-2026-98922.json">CVE-2026-98922</a>Reference added —https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c9f391ec89cb621d7af375ace2eb9a6248e5b9dReference added —https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c664cca8f622e66bea6a94279ae2611f1d1c0c67Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2026-98922"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2026-98922.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2026-98922 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>