CVE-2024-44971: net: dsa: bcm_sf2: Fix a possible memory leak in bcm_sf2_mdio_register()

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: 2024-09-04 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-401

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: bcm_sf2: Fix a possible memory leak in bcm_sf2_mdio_register() bcm_sf2_mdio_register() calls of_phy_find_device() and then phy_device_remove() in a loop to remove existing PHY devices. of_phy_find_device() eventually calls bus_find_device(), which calls get_device() on the returned struct device * to increment the refcount. The current implementation does not decrement the refcount, which causes memory leak. This commit adds the missing phy_device_free() call to decrement the refcount via put_device() to balance the refcount.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.10 before 5.10.224; from 5.11 before 5.15.165; from 5.16 before 6.1.105; from 6.2 before 6.6.46; from 6.7 before 6.10.5; 6.11-rc1, 6.11-rc2 — fixed in 5.10.224, 5.15.165, 6.1.105, 6.10.5, 6.6.46

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.224, 5.15.165, 6.1.105, 6.10.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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