CVE-2026-97972

Name	CVE-2026-97972
Description	In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: macb: put the "mdio" child node reference on success macb_mii_init() holds the reference returned by of_get_child_by_name() for macb_mdiobus_register() and drops it only on the error paths, so every successful probe leaks a node reference. On a CM5, overlay removal after four bind cycles reports OF: ERROR: memory leak, expected refcount 1 instead of 5 Drop the reference after registration, where __mdiobus_register() has already taken its own for the lifetime of the bus.
Source	CVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source Package	Release	Version	Status
linux (PTS)	bookworm	6.1.176-1	fixed
	bookworm (security)	6.1.187-1	fixed
	trixie	6.12.107-1	fixed
	trixie (security)	6.12.113-1	fixed
	forky	7.2.9-1	fixed
	sid	7.2.11-1	fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

Package	Type	Release	Fixed Version
linux	source	bookworm	(not affected)
linux	source	trixie	(not affected)
linux	source	(unstable)	7.2.7-1

Notes

[trixie] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[bookworm] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://git.kernel.org/linus/382a373d9ea7a6ac4de9c022385b6217f65ae3cc (7.3-rc3)