linux-cve-announce - CVE-2026-23041: bnxt_en: Fix NULL pointer crash in bnxt_ptp

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Message-ID: <2026020438-CVE-2026-23041-a426@gregkh>
Date: Wed,  4 Feb 2026 17:00:41 +0100
From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To: linux-cve-announce@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>
Subject: CVE-2026-23041: bnxt_en: Fix NULL pointer crash in bnxt_ptp_enable during error cleanup

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>

Description
===========

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 driver's .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.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2026-23041 to this issue.

Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Issue introduced in 6.18 with commit a60fc3294a377204664b5484e4a487fa124155da and fixed in 6.18.6 with commit 0174d5466caefc22f03a36c43b2a3cce7e332627
	Issue introduced in 6.18 with commit a60fc3294a377204664b5484e4a487fa124155da and fixed in 6.19-rc5 with commit 3358995b1a7f9dcb52a56ec8251570d71024dad0

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2026-23041
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.

Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/bnxt/bnxt.c

Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0174d5466caefc22f03a36c43b2a3cce7e332627
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3358995b1a7f9dcb52a56ec8251570d71024dad0