In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: emac: move setting of netops to fix crash fixes the following crash on… (CVE-2026-98922)

The Linux kernel emac network driver had a vulnerability causing a kernel NULL pointer dereference crash during driver initialization on PowerPC 44x platforms. The crash occurred because netdev_ops were not assigned before calling of_phy_connect(), which led to an invalid memory access in phy_link_topo_add_phy(). The fix moved the setting of netdev_ops and related operations earlier in the initialization process (emac_init_config()) to ensure they are properly assigned before use. The patch also adjusted the assignment of dev->commac.ops for non-gige cases to maintain original behavior. This resolved the crash observed starting with kernel version 7.3-rc1.

The vulnerability causes a kernel crash (NULL pointer dereference) during network driver initialization, leading to system instability or denial of service on affected systems using the emac driver on PowerPC 44x platforms. There is no indication of code execution or privilege escalation from the provided data.

A fix is available that moves the setting of netdev_ops earlier in the emac driver initialization to prevent the crash. Users should update to a Linux kernel version that includes this patch. Since this is a kernel-level fix, applying the official kernel update or patch is the recommended remediation.