CVE-2026-98812

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

net/mctp: publish the mctp_dev only after it is initialised

mctp_add_dev() links the new mctp_dev into dev->mctp_ptr before mdev->dev is assigned, so a reader that picks the device up in that window dereferences a net_device pointer that is still NULL:

KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000000b0-0x00000000000000b7] Call Trace: ? __pfx_mctp_sendmsg (./include/linux/sockptr.h:49) ? __pfx_mctp_dst_output (net/mctp/route.c:41) ? selinux_socket_sendmsg (security/selinux/hooks.c:5278) ____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:775 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:790 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:2684 (discriminator 1)) ? __pfx_____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:1131) ? __pfx_copy_msghdr_from_user (net/socket.c:2590) ? update_cfs_rq_load_avg (kernel/sched/fair.c:5478) ___sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2738) ? __pfx____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2625) ? perf_event_task_tick (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:838) ? sched_tick (kernel/sched/core.c:5818) ? clockevents_program_event (kernel/time/clockevents.c:372) ? fdget (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:873 fs/file.c:1100) __sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2770) ? __pfx___sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2751) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121)

Fix by publishing only once the object is fully initialised: __mctp_dev_get() runs under rcu_read_lock() only and hands this object to readers as soon as mctp_ptr is assigned, so they must never observe mdev->dev == NULL.