# CVE-2024-26942: net: phy: qcom: at803x: fix kernel panic with at8031_probe

> A null pointer dereference in the Qualcomm AT803x PHY driver causes a kernel panic, leading to 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:** 1 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-26942, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26942, GHSA-j563-gw8p-23mq, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26942

## What is CVE-2024-26942?

CVE-2024-26942 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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: phy: qcom: at803x: fix kernel panic with at8031_probe

On reworking and splitting the at803x driver, in splitting function of
at803x PHYs it was added a NULL dereference bug where priv is referenced
before it's actually allocated and then is tried to write to for the
is_1000basex and is_fiber variables in the case of at8031, writing on
the wrong address.

Fix this by correctly setting priv local variable only after
at803x_probe is called and actually allocates priv in the phydev struct.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference), CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26942?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26942?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26942 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26942 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-2024-26942 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26942 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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-2024-26942 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-2024-26942/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26942/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26942
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26942
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26942

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26942/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.