CVE-2026-23041

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

bnxt_en: Fix NULL pointer crash in bnxt_ptp_enable during error cleanup

When bnxt_init_one() fails during initialization (e.g., bnxt_init_int_mode returns -ENODEV), the error path calls bnxt_free_hwrm_resources() which destroys the DMA pool and sets bp->hwrm_dma_pool to NULL. Subsequently, bnxt_ptp_clear() is called, which invokes ptp_clock_unregister().

Since commit a60fc3294a37 (ptp: rework ptp_clock_unregister() to disable events), ptp_clock_unregister() now calls ptp_disable_all_events(), which in turn invokes the drivers .enable() callback (bnxt_ptp_enable()) to disable PTP events before completing the unregistration.

bnxt_ptp_enable() attempts to send HWRM commands via bnxt_ptp_cfg_pin() and bnxt_ptp_cfg_event(), both of which call hwrm_req_init(). This function tries to allocate from bp->hwrm_dma_pool, causing a NULL pointer dereference:

bnxt_en 0000:01:00.0 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): bnxt_init_int_mode err: ffffffed KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000028-0x000000000000002f] Call Trace: __hwrm_req_init (drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt_hwrm.c:72) bnxt_ptp_enable (drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt_ptp.c:323 drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt_ptp.c:517) ptp_disable_all_events (drivers/ptp/ptp_chardev.c:66) ptp_clock_unregister (drivers/ptp/ptp_clock.c:518) bnxt_ptp_clear (drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt_ptp.c:1134) bnxt_init_one (drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt.c:16889)

Lines are against commit f8f9c1f4d0c7 (Linux 6.19-rc3)

Fix this by clearing and unregistering ptp (bnxt_ptp_clear()) before freeing HWRM resources.

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0174d5466caefc22f03a36c43b2a3cce7e332627
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3358995b1a7f9dcb52a56ec8251570d71024dad0