Crash via unchecked regulator disable during unbind
Published Oct 18, 2026 · Updated Oct 18, 2026
NULL dereference in Linux's mt7530 MDIO driver allows local users to crash the calling task through privileged driver unbinding. mt7530_remove() disables core and I/O regulators even though their pointers remain NULL on MT7531 and MT7621 switches. Triggering requires driver-removal privileges and regulator support; panic-on-oops configuration turns the task crash into a kernel panic and reboot.
Summary
What happened
NULL dereference in Linux's mt7530 MDIO driver allows local users to crash the calling task through privileged driver unbinding. mt7530_remove() disables core and I/O regulators even though their pointers remain NULL on MT7531 and MT7621 switches. Triggering requires driver-removal privileges and regulator support; panic-on-oops configuration turns the task crash into a kernel panic and reboot.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98565
- Published
- Oct 18, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 18, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.1
- Affected versionversion=ddda1ac116c852bb969541ed53cffef7255c4961 <62c0e38b2e5034184d4502ce77bd178b29e59b83
- Affected versionversion=ddda1ac116c852bb969541ed53cffef7255c4961 <aae2a1f1e3a0ac5eeb439262a2328a2a392413ac
- Affected versionversion=ddda1ac116c852bb969541ed53cffef7255c4961 <bd172580e624bac00d83abd5c4320d2e14d853bc
- Affected versionversion=ddda1ac116c852bb969541ed53cffef7255c4961 <c2cdef41e0b4d8ed23a5b41e6ad4e64594e055e4
- Affected versionversion=ddda1ac116c852bb969541ed53cffef7255c4961 <e9a5298532780ecdd05c3220f3e1e3067b3537c3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
No CVSS assessment is available in this record.
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Upstream MT7531 driver-unbind crash reproductionproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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