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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-59305

| CVE-2026-72406 HIGH
2026-08-15 Linux GHSA-hmg3-fx9r-3v68
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
6.4 MEDIUM

Requires privileged kernel context plus specific obsolete sungem hardware and a deliberate probe failure, making AC:H and PR:H more accurate than the vendor's AC:L/PR:L assignment.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
4.7 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Red Hat
5.5 MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 17, 2026 - 09:08 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
7.8 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 15, 2026 - 07:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:56 cve.org
HIGH 7.8
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 05:56 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: sungem: fix probe error cleanup

gem_init_one() calls gem_remove_one() when register_netdev() fails. gem_remove_one() unregisters and frees resources owned by the net_device, including the DMA block, MMIO mapping, PCI regions, and the net_device itself. gem_init_one() then falls through to its own cleanup labels and frees the same resources again.

Keep the register_netdev() error path in gem_init_one(): clear drvdata so PM/remove paths do not see a half-registered device, remove the NAPI instance added during probe, and let the existing cleanup labels release the resources once.

The issue was found by a local static-analysis checker for probe error paths. The reported path was manually inspected before sending this fix.

Compile-tested with CONFIG_SUNGEM=y. Runtime testing was not performed because no sungem hardware is available.

AnalysisAI

Double-free memory corruption in the Linux kernel's sungem (Sun GEM) Ethernet driver probe error path allows local attackers to trigger kernel heap corruption on systems equipped with Sun GEM hardware. gem_init_one() incorrectly delegates cleanup to gem_remove_one() on register_netdev() failure - which frees DMA blocks, MMIO mappings, PCI regions, and the net_device struct - then falls through to its own cleanup labels that attempt to release the same already-freed resources. No public exploit or active exploitation is identified at time of analysis; EPSS is 0.22% (13th percentile), consistent with the extreme obsolescence of the affected hardware.

Technical ContextAI

The sungem driver (drivers/net/ethernet/sun/sungem.c) supports Sun Microsystems GEM (Gigabit Ethernet) chips found in older Sun workstations and Apple PowerPC-based hardware from roughly 2000-2005. The defect is a classic probe error cleanup race: gem_init_one() calls gem_remove_one() upon register_netdev() failure, but gem_remove_one() already deallocates all device-owned resources including the DMA coherent block, MMIO region, PCI BARs, and the net_device structure itself via free_netdev(). gem_init_one() then continues executing through its own error-path goto labels and attempts to release those same resources a second time, producing a double-free in kernel heap memory. Although CWE is formally unassigned, this maps to CWE-415 (Double Free) and CWE-672 (Operation on Resource After Expiration). The fix clears drvdata to prevent PM and remove paths from seeing a half-registered device, removes the NAPI instance added during probe, and permits the existing cleanup labels to release resources exactly once. CPE cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:* confirms all Linux kernel builds from the initial git history commit (1da177e4c3f4, Linux 2.6.12) through unpatched stable branches are affected. The bug was identified by static analysis of probe error paths and has not been runtime-tested due to unavailability of sungem hardware.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is to upgrade to a vendor-released patched kernel: 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, or 7.2-rc1. Stable patch commits are available directly at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f3bd60b26814b7c3c57c629abb0857dfc76d214a and the sibling commits listed in the CVE references. For systems that cannot be immediately patched and happen to host sungem hardware, a targeted workaround is to blacklist the sungem kernel module by adding 'blacklist sungem' to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and rebuilding the initramfs; this prevents driver probe execution and avoids the vulnerable code path entirely, at the cost of losing Sun GEM Ethernet functionality. On the vast majority of modern deployments where sungem hardware is absent, the sungem driver will not load and no compensating control is needed beyond scheduling the kernel upgrade through normal patch management. The NVD advisory is available at https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72406.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Not-Affected

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EUVD-2026-59305 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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