CVE-2026-31722 usb: gadget: f_rndis: Fix net_device lifecycle with device_move

What is CVE-2026-31722?

CVE-2026-31722 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2026. 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:

usb: gadget: f_rndis: Fix net_device lifecycle with device_move

The net_device is allocated during function instance creation and registered during the bind phase with the gadget device as its sysfs parent. When the function unbinds, the parent device is destroyed, but the net_device survives, resulting in dangling sysfs symlinks:

console:/ # ls -l /sys/class/net/usb0 lrwxrwxrwx ... /sys/class/net/usb0 -> /sys/devices/platform/.../gadget.0/net/usb0 console:/ # ls -l /sys/devices/platform/.../gadget.0/net/usb0 ls: .../gadget.0/net/usb0: No such file or directory

Use device_move() to reparent the net_device between the gadget device tree and /sys/devices/virtual across bind and unbind cycles. During the final unbind, calling device_move(NULL) moves the net_device to the virtual device tree before the gadget device is destroyed. On rebinding, device_move() reparents the device back under the new gadget, ensuring proper sysfs topology and power management ordering.

To maintain compatibility with legacy composite drivers (e.g., multi.c), the borrowed_net flag is used to indicate whether the network device is shared and pre-registered during the legacy driver's bind phase.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31722?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-31722?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-31722 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31722 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-31722, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31722, GHSA-gx44-7282-c76j, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-31722, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-31722, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-31722 and 2 more.