CVE-2021-47416: phy: mdio: fix memory leak
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2021-47416 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14.3% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 21 · Related 21Timeline
- 21-05-2024PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 11-05-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: phy: mdio: fix memory leak Syzbot reported memory leak in MDIO bus interface, the problem was in wrong state logic. MDIOBUS_ALLOCATED indicates 2 states: 1. Bus is only allocated 2. Bus allocated and __mdiobus_register() fails, but device_register() was called In case of device_register() has been called we should call put_device() to correctly free the memory allocated for this device, but mdiobus_free() calls just kfree(dev) in case of MDIOBUS_ALLOCATED state To avoid this behaviour we need to set bus->state to MDIOBUS_UNREGISTERED _before_ calling device_register(), because put_device() should be called even in case of device_register() failure.
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.23%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
14%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
No change 0.00 pp
From 0.23% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu87 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-166.174 | < 5.4.0-92.103
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 4.15.0-1118.125 | < 5.4.0-1061.64
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 25e9f88c7e3cc35f5e3d3db199660d28a15df639 | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 2250392d930bd0d989f24d355d6355b0150256e7 | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < f4f502a04ee1e543825af78f47eb7785015cd9f6 | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 2397b9e118721292429fea8807a698e71b94795f | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 414bb4ead1362ef2c8592db723c017258f213988 | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 0d2dd40a7be61b89a7c99dae8ee96389d27b413a | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < 064c2616234a7394867c924b5c1303974f3a4f4d | ≥ 46abc02175b3c246dd5141d878f565a8725060c9, < ca6e11c337daf7925ff8a2aac8e84490a8691905 | 2.6.28
- linux_kernel≥ 2.6.28, < 4.4.289 | ≥ 4.5, < 4.9.287 | ≥ 4.10, < 4.14.251 | ≥ 4.15, < 4.19.211 | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.153 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.73 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.14.12 | 5.15:rc1 | 5.15:rc2 | 5.15:rc3 | 5.15:rc4
Debian1 product
- linux< 5.14.12-1
3 vendors · 90 products
