Linux Kernel up to 6.19.11 platform_device_unregister use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.11. This impacts the function platform_device_unregister. Such manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-43015. The attack can only be performed from a local environment. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.11. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is the function platform_device_unregister. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macb: fix clk handling on PCI glue driver removal platform_device_unregister() may still want to use the registered clks during runtime resume callback. Note that there is a commit d82d5303c4c5 ("net: macb: fix use after free on rmmod") that addressed the similar problem of clk vs platform device unregistration but just moved the bug to another place. Save the pointers to clks into local variables for reuse after platform device is unregistered. BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in clk_prepare+0x5a/0x60 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888104f85e00 by task modprobe/597 CPU: 2 PID: 597 Comm: modprobe Not tainted 6.1.164+ #114 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.1-0-g3208b098f51a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x8d/0xba print_report+0x17f/0x496 kasan_report+0xd9/0x180 clk_prepare+0x5a/0x60 macb_runtime_resume+0x13d/0x410 [macb] pm_generic_runtime_resume+0x97/0xd0 __rpm_callback+0xc8/0x4d0 rpm_callback+0xf6/0x230 rpm_resume+0xeeb/0x1a70 __pm_runtime_resume+0xb4/0x170 bus_remove_device+0x2e3/0x4b0 device_del+0x5b3/0xdc0 platform_device_del+0x4e/0x280 platform_device_unregister+0x11/0x50 pci_device_remove+0xae/0x210 device_remove+0xcb/0x180 device_release_driver_internal+0x529/0x770 driver_detach+0xd4/0x1a0 bus_remove_driver+0x135/0x260 driver_unregister+0x72/0xb0 pci_unregister_driver+0x26/0x220 __do_sys_delete_module+0x32e/0x550 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8 Allocated by task 519: kasan_save_stack+0x2c/0x50 kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 __kasan_kmalloc+0x8e/0x90 __clk_register+0x458/0x2890 clk_hw_register+0x1a/0x60 __clk_hw_register_fixed_rate+0x255/0x410 clk_register_fixed_rate+0x3c/0xa0 macb_probe+0x1d8/0x42e [macb_pci] local_pci_probe+0xd7/0x190 pci_device_probe+0x252/0x600 really_probe+0x255/0x7f0 __driver_probe_device+0x1ee/0x330 driver_probe_device+0x4c/0x1f0 __driver_attach+0x1df/0x4e0 bus_for_each_dev+0x15d/0x1f0 bus_add_driver+0x486/0x5e0 driver_register+0x23a/0x3d0 do_one_initcall+0xfd/0x4d0 do_init_module+0x18b/0x5a0 load_module+0x5663/0x7950 __do_sys_finit_module+0x101/0x180 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8 Freed by task 597: kasan_save_stack+0x2c/0x50 kasan_set_track+0x21/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x2a/0x50 __kasan_slab_free+0x106/0x180 __kmem_cache_free+0xbc/0x320 clk_unregister+0x6de/0x8d0 macb_remove+0x73/0xc0 [macb_pci] pci_device_remove+0xae/0x210 device_remove+0xcb/0x180 device_release_driver_internal+0x529/0x770 driver_detach+0xd4/0x1a0 bus_remove_driver+0x135/0x260 driver_unregister+0x72/0xb0 pci_unregister_driver+0x26/0x220 __do_sys_delete_module+0x32e/0x550 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-43015 since 05/01/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/01/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.168, 6.6.134, 6.12.81, 6.18.22 or 6.19.12 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch bf64cae913cdd4821f13d5d1d68900c0891bef69/67f70841a175fa3469119f52d77a3662c07507a2/2d96204e4184d6f7dd2f93c6f218fd0c1f55e9ae/b3f799cdf830df1782ae463cf15ace35015be99e/f310a836da90d0f0321b14d446c071af63f9ee4c/16ab4c0e2b15df5d33bfcb9ea8e4441b85dd4a57/3496fb9e66f79d4def3bb7ec7563e3eaa33a688f/ce8fe5287b87e24e225c342f3b0ec04f0b3680fe is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.252
• 5.15.202
• 6.1.167
• 6.6.133
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.12.78
• 6.12.79
• 6.12.80
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 6.19.10
• 6.19.11

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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