CVE-2026-31727: usb: gadget: u_ether: Fix NULL pointer deref in eth_get_drvinfo

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-01 · updated 2026-06-19
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: gadget: u_ether: Fix NULL pointer deref in eth_get_drvinfo Commit ec35c1969650 ("usb: gadget: f_ncm: Fix net_device lifecycle with device_move") reparents the gadget device to /sys/devices/virtual during unbind, clearing the gadget pointer. If the userspace tool queries on the surviving interface during this detached window, this leads to a NULL pointer dereference. Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference Call trace: eth_get_drvinfo+0x50/0x90 ethtool_get_drvinfo+0x5c/0x1f0 __dev_ethtool+0xaec/0x1fe0 dev_ethtool+0x134/0x2e0 dev_ioctl+0x338/0x560 Add a NULL check for dev->gadget in eth_get_drvinfo(). When detached, skip copying the fw_version and bus_info strings, which is natively handled by ethtool_get_drvinfo for empty strings.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.12.78 before 6.12.81; from 6.18.19 before 6.18.22; from 6.19.9 before 6.19.12; 7.0-rc1, 7.0-rc2, 7.0-rc3, 7.0-rc4, 7.0-rc5, 7.0-rc6 — fixed in 6.12.81, 6.18.22, 6.19.12

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.81, 6.18.22, 6.19.12. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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