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CVE-2024-42282: net: mediatek: Fix potential NULL pointer dereference in dummy net_device handling

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2024-08-17 · updated 2026-10-03
• Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: mediatek: Fix potential NULL pointer dereference in dummy net_device handling Move the freeing of the dummy net_device from mtk_free_dev() to mtk_remove(). Previously, if alloc_netdev_dummy() failed in mtk_probe(), eth->dummy_dev would be NULL. The error path would then call mtk_free_dev(), which in turn called free_netdev() assuming dummy_dev was allocated (but it was not), potentially causing a NULL pointer dereference. By moving free_netdev() to mtk_remove(), we ensure it's only called when mtk_probe() has succeeded and dummy_dev is fully allocated. This addresses a potential NULL pointer dereference detected by Smatch[1].

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 6.10 before 6.10.3 — fixed in 6.10.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.10.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/16f3a28cf5f876a7f3550d8f4c870a7b41bcfaef
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/81e82340170ae82f8cc28e76c13a0069c0d47cb4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/af6bd5c9901b13a26eaf4d57d97a813297791596

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