# CVE-2022-48818: net: dsa: mv88e6xxx: don't use devres for mdiobus

> A kernel panic occurs during system shutdown due to improper MDIO bus resource management in the Marvell DSA driver, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-48818, GHSA-j4rr-5cq7-mpjq, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-48818

## What is CVE-2022-48818?

CVE-2022-48818 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Jul 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: dsa: mv88e6xxx: don't use devres for mdiobus

As explained in commits:
74b6d7d13307 ("net: dsa: realtek: register the MDIO bus under devres")
5135e96a3dd2 ("net: dsa: don't allocate the slave_mii_bus using devres")

mdiobus_free() will panic when called from devm_mdiobus_free() <-
devres_release_all() <- __device_release_driver(), and that mdiobus was
not previously unregistered.

The mv88e6xxx is an MDIO device, so the initial set of constraints that
I thought would cause this (I2C or SPI buses which call ->remove on
->shutdown) do not apply. But there is one more which applies here.

If the DSA master itself is on a bus that calls ->remove from ->shutdown
(like dpaa2-eth, which is on the fsl-mc bus), there is a device link
between the switch and the DSA master, and device_links_unbind_consumers()
will unbind the Marvell switch driver on shutdown.

systemd-shutdown[1]: Powering off.
mv88e6085 0x0000000008b96000:00 sw_gl0: Link is Down
fsl-mc dpbp.9: Removing from iommu group 7
fsl-mc dpbp.8: Removing from iommu group 7
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at drivers/net/phy/mdio_bus.c:677!
Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] PREEMPT SMP
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd-shutdow Not tainted 5.16.5-00040-gdc05f73788e5 #15
pc : mdiobus_free+0x44/0x50
lr : devm_mdiobus_free+0x10/0x20
Call trace:
 mdiobus_free+0x44/0x50
 devm_mdiobus_free+0x10/0x20
 devres_release_all+0xa0/0x100
 __device_release_driver+0x190/0x220
 device_release_driver_internal+0xac/0xb0
 device_links_unbind_consumers+0xd4/0x100
 __device_release_driver+0x4c/0x220
 device_release_driver_internal+0xac/0xb0
 device_links_unbind_consumers+0xd4/0x100
 __device_release_driver+0x94/0x220
 device_release_driver+0x28/0x40
 bus_remove_device+0x118/0x124
 device_del+0x174/0x420
 fsl_mc_device_remove+0x24/0x40
 __fsl_mc_device_remove+0xc/0x20
 device_for_each_child+0x58/0xa0
 dprc_remove+0x90/0xb0
 fsl_mc_driver_remove+0x20/0x5c
 __device_release_driver+0x21c/0x220
 device_release_driver+0x28/0x40
 bus_remove_device+0x118/0x124
 device_del+0x174/0x420
 fsl_mc_bus_remove+0x80/0x100
 fsl_mc_bus_shutdown+0xc/0x1c
 platform_shutdown+0x20/0x30
 device_shutdown+0x154/0x330
 kernel_power_off+0x34/0x6c
 __do_sys_reboot+0x15c/0x250
 __arm64_sys_reboot+0x20/0x30
 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x4c/0xe0
 do_el0_svc+0x4c/0x150
 el0_svc+0x24/0xb0
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa8/0xb0
 el0t_64_sync+0x178/0x17c

So the same treatment must be applied to all DSA switch drivers, which
is: either use devres for both the mdiobus allocation and registration,
or don't use devres at all.

The Marvell driver already has a good structure for mdiobus removal, so
just plug in mdiobus_free and get rid of devres.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-48818?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-48818?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-48818 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-48818 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-48818 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-48818 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Jul 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-48818 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48818/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48818/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-48818
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-48818
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-48818

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-48818/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
