Bug 2516743 (CVE-2026-72058)

Summary: CVE-2026-72058 kernel: net: ixp4xx_hss: fix duplicate HDLC netdev allocation
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ixp4xx_hss network driver. The `ixp4xx_hss_probe()` function incorrectly allocates two High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) network devices instead of one. This programming error leads to a memory leak, as the initially allocated device is not properly unregistered and freed, which can impact system stability.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:28:45 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: ixp4xx_hss: fix duplicate HDLC netdev allocation

ixp4xx_hss_probe() allocates two HDLC netdevs. The first one is stored
in ndev, initialized, and registered with register_hdlc_device(). The
second one is stored in port->netdev and later used by the remove path
for unregister_hdlc_device() and free_netdev().

This means that the registered netdev is not the same object that is
unregistered and freed on remove. It also leaks the first allocation if
the second alloc_hdlcdev() call fails, and the first allocation is not
checked before ndev is used.

Older code allocated the HDLC netdev only once and stored the same object
in both the local variable and port->netdev. The buggy conversion split
this into two alloc_hdlcdev() calls. A later rename changed the local
variable name to ndev, but the underlying mismatch remained.

Fix this by allocating the HDLC netdev only once and assigning the same
object to port->netdev.
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-08-17 19:01:02 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081516-CVE-2026-72058-c750@gregkh/T