CVE-2026-97573 bnxt_en: Handle buffer allocation failure in bnxt_rx_ring_reset()
A missing error check in the bnxt_en network driver can lead to a null pointer dereference and system crash when buffer allocation fails.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-97573?
CVE-2026-97573 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bnxt_en: Handle buffer allocation failure in bnxt_rx_ring_reset()
bnxt_rx_ring_reset() frees the ring buffers and then reallocates them, ignoring the result.
bnxt_alloc_one_rx_ring() can fail in bnxt_alloc_one_tpa_info_data(), which returns -ENOMEM on the first failed allocation and leaves the remaining rxr->rx_tpa[] entries zeroed.
The error isn't propagated up, so the loop in bnxt_rx_ring_reset continues and at the end the code re-enables TPA with partially unallocated rx_tpa array.
This means that when the agg_id from hardware is mapped to a SW index in rxr->rx_tpa[], an uninitialized slot can be chosen which would hand a zero DMA address to the device.
Fix this by falling back to a global reset, which is what the existing code already does when other functions fail, but unlike the other failure cases this particular failure has to return because TPA can't be re-enabled since the allocation failed.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97573?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97573?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-97573 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97573 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-104792, BELL-CVE-2026-97573, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97573, GHSA-fg85-697p-x487, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97573.