In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: mv88e6xxx: don't use devres for mdiobus As explained in commits: 74b6d7d13307 ("net: dsa: realtek: register the MDIO bus under devres") 5135e96a3dd2 ("net: dsa: don't allocate the slave_mii_bus using devres") mdiobus_free() will panic when called from devm_mdiobus_free() <- devres_release_all() <- __device_release_driver(), and that mdiobus was not previously unregistered. The mv88e6xxx is an MDIO device, so the initial set of constraints that I thought would cause this (I2C or SPI buses which call ->remove on ->shutdown) do not apply. But there is one more which applies here. If the DSA master itself is on a bus that calls ->remove from ->shutdown (like dpaa2-eth, which is on the fsl-mc bus), there is a device link between the switch and the DSA master, and device_links_unbind_consumers() will unbind the Marvell switch driver on shutdown. systemd-shutdown[1]: Powering off. mv88e6085 0x0000000008b96000:00 sw_gl0: Link is Down fsl-mc dpbp.9: Removing from iommu group 7 fsl-mc dpbp.8: Removing from iommu group 7 ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at drivers/net/phy/mdio_bus.c:677! Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd-shutdow Not tainted 5.16.5-00040-gdc05f73788e5 #15 pc : mdiobus_free+0x44/0x50 lr : devm_mdiobus_free+0x10/0x20 Call trace: mdiobus_free+0x44/0x50 devm_mdiobus_free+0x10/0x20 devres_release_all+0xa0/0x100 __device_release_driver+0x190/0x220 device_release_driver_internal+0xac/0xb0 device_links_unbind_consumers+0xd4/0x100 __device_release_driver+0x4c/0x220 device_release_driver_internal+0xac/0xb0 device_links_unbind_consumers+0xd4/0x100 __device_release_driver+0x94/0x220 device_release_driver+0x28/0x40 bus_remove_device+0x118/0x124 device_del+0x174/0x420 fsl_mc_device_remove+0x24/0x40 __fsl_mc_device_remove+0xc/0x20 device_for_each_child+0x58/0xa0 dprc_remove+0x90/0xb0 fsl_mc_driver_remove+0x20/0x5c __device_release_driver+0x21c/0x220 device_release_driver+0x28/0x40 bus_remove_device+0x118/0x124 device_del+0x174/0x420 fsl_mc_bus_remove+0x80/0x100 fsl_mc_bus_shutdown+0xc/0x1c platform_shutdown+0x20/0x30 device_shutdown+0x154/0x330 kernel_power_off+0x34/0x6c __do_sys_reboot+0x15c/0x250 __arm64_sys_reboot+0x20/0x30 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x4c/0xe0 do_el0_svc+0x4c/0x150 el0_svc+0x24/0xb0 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa8/0xb0 el0t_64_sync+0x178/0x17c So the same treatment must be applied to all DSA switch drivers, which is: either use devres for both the mdiobus allocation and registration, or don't use devres at all. The Marvell driver already has a good structure for mdiobus removal, so just plug in mdiobus_free and get rid of devres.