[PATCH net] net: ethtool: phy: avoid NULL deref when PHY driver is unbound

From: David Carlier

Date: Sat May 09 2026 - 17:51:15 EST


phydev->drv can become NULL while the phy_device is still attached to
its net_device, namely after the PHY driver is unbound via sysfs:

echo <mdio_id> > /sys/bus/mdio_bus/drivers/<phy_drv>/unbind

phy_remove() clears phydev->drv but doesn't call phy_detach(), so the
phy_device stays in the link topology xarray and ethnl_req_get_phydev()
still hands it back. ETHTOOL_MSG_PHY_GET then oopses on:

rep_data->drvname = kstrdup(phydev->drv->name, GFP_KERNEL);

drvname is already treated as optional by phy_reply_size(),
phy_fill_reply() and phy_cleanup_data(), so just skip the allocation
when there is no driver bound.

Fixes: 9dd2ad5e92b9 ("net: ethtool: phy: Convert the PHY_GET command to generic phy dump")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx # 6.13.x
Signed-off-by: David Carlier <devnexen@xxxxxxxxx>
---
net/ethtool/phy.c | 10 ++++++----
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/net/ethtool/phy.c b/net/ethtool/phy.c
index f76d94d848d6..ddc6eab701ed 100644
--- a/net/ethtool/phy.c
+++ b/net/ethtool/phy.c
@@ -94,10 +94,12 @@ static int phy_prepare_data(const struct ethnl_req_info *req_info,
if (!rep_data->name)
return -ENOMEM;

- rep_data->drvname = kstrdup(phydev->drv->name, GFP_KERNEL);
- if (!rep_data->drvname) {
- ret = -ENOMEM;
- goto err_free_name;
+ if (phydev->drv) {
+ rep_data->drvname = kstrdup(phydev->drv->name, GFP_KERNEL);
+ if (!rep_data->drvname) {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
+ goto err_free_name;
+ }
}

rep_data->upstream_type = pdn->upstream_type;
--
2.53.0