{"id":"CVE-2026-98563","title":"kernel: net: phylink: record the PHY only once bringup cannot fail (CVE-2026-98563)","summary":"A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's phylink component. When an error occurs during Ethernet physical layer (PHY) device initialization, the kernel prematurely stores a reference to the device before setup finishes. If the bringup operat…","severity":"medium","cvss":4.1,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","cvssSource":"vendor","cwe":"CWE-825","vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9","affected":["enterprise_linux 10","enterprise_linux 9","openshift_container_platform 4"],"published":"2026-10-18","updated":"2026-10-20","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-20T02:31:22+00:00","source":"CSAF","sourceUrl":"https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-98563.json","references":[{"url":"https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-98563.json"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-98563"},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2555015"},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98563"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98563"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98563.mbox"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4e7a4af364c2048bafb213bf0ef4a89dcbe1bfd4"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/671a68654a9d319d7f0d53a6321db3d9b391bdef"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a940003f44e7e441c228151dd212642152700ec8"}],"tags":["csaf","vex","red-hat","cve.org"],"epss":0.00198,"epssPercentile":0.09493,"ingestedAt":"2026-10-18T15:45:12.260Z","slug":"CVE-2026-98563","body":"## Overview\n\nA flaw was found in the Linux kernel's phylink component. When an error occurs during Ethernet physical layer (PHY) device initialization, the kernel prematurely stores a reference to the device before setup finishes. If the bringup operation fails, the device is detached and freed, but the kernel retains a stale pointer. A local user with administrative privileges or network hardware events triggering connection retries can cause the kernel to access this freed memory, leading to memory corruption or a Denial of Service (DoS) via a system crash.\n\n## Vendor advisories\n\n- **Red Hat VEX** · Moderate · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · updated 2026-10-20 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-98563.json)\n\n**kernel: net: phylink: record the PHY only once bringup cannot fail** — rated Moderate by Red Hat. Released 2026-10-18, updated 2026-10-20.\n\nAffected:\n\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9\n- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4\n\nNo fix planned:\n\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9\n- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4\n\nNot affected:\n\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8\n- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9\n- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4\n\n## Remediation\n\nFix deferred","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":23,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":22.5,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[{"seq":225802,"id":"CVE-2026-98563","ts":1792498459177,"field":"cvss","old":null,"new":"4.1"},{"seq":225801,"id":"CVE-2026-98563","ts":1792498459177,"field":"severity","old":"none","new":"medium"}]}