critical CVSS 9.1

CVE-2024-35960·Kernel vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: Properly link new fs rules into the tree Previously, add_rule_fg would only add newly created rules from the handle into the tree when they had a refcount of 1. On the other hand, create_flow_handle tries hard to find and reference already existing identical rules instead of creating new ones. These two behaviors can result in a situation where create_flow_handle 1) creates a new rule and references it, then 2) in a subsequent step during the same handle creation references it again, resulting in a rule with a refcount of 2 that is not linked into the tree, will have a NULL parent and root and will result in a crash when the flow group is deleted because del_sw_hw_rule, invoked on rule deletion, assumes node->parent is != NULL. This happened in the wild, due to another bug related to incorrect handling of duplicate pkt_reformat ids, which lead to the code in create_flow_handle incorrectly referencing a just-added rule in the same flow handle, resulting in the problem described above. Full details are at [1]. This patch changes add_rule_fg to add new rules without parents into the tree, properly initializing them and avoiding the crash. This makes it more consistent with how rules are added to an FTE in create_flow_handle.

Severity
critical
Software
Kernel
Fixed in
6.8.7
Published
2024-05-20

Affected versions

From: 6.7

Until: 6.8.7

Fixed in: 6.8.7

How to fix this CVE

Update your Linux kernel to version 6.8.7 or later to resolve a critical memory management issue in the MLX5 network driver's flow rule handling. This vulnerability affects kernel versions 6.7 through 6.8.6 and can cause system crashes when flow groups are deleted. Apply the kernel update and reboot your system to ensure the fix is active.

sudo dnf update kernel kernel-devel && sudo reboot

Defensia detects this vulnerability

How to check if you are affected

  1. Check your current kernel version: uname -r | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+\.\d+'
  2. Verify MLX5 driver is loaded: lsmod | grep mlx5 (if present, your system uses the affected network driver)
  3. Search kernel logs for crash signatures: sudo dmesg | grep -i 'null pointer\|kernel panic\|mlx5' | tail -50
  4. Confirm the fix by verifying kernel version is 6.8.7 or later: uname -r (should show 6.8.7+, 6.9+, or later)

FAQ

What is CVE-2024-35960?

CVE-2024-35960 is a critical kernel vulnerability in the MLX5 network driver where flow rules with elevated reference counts fail to link into the driver's internal tree structure, causing NULL pointer dereferences and system crashes when flow groups are deleted. This occurs due to incorrect duplicate handling and reference counting logic during rule creation.

Is CVE-2024-35960 being actively exploited?

No, CVE-2024-35960 is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and no public exploits are available. However, the vulnerability can be triggered through normal network operations on systems using MLX5 adapters.

What versions of Kernel are affected by CVE-2024-35960?

Linux kernel versions 6.7 through 6.8.6 are affected. Kernel 6.8.7 and later versions contain the fix.

How do I check if my server is vulnerable to CVE-2024-35960?

Run `uname -r` to get your kernel version. If it is 6.7.x through 6.8.6 and `lsmod | grep mlx5` shows the MLX5 driver is loaded, your system is vulnerable.

Does Defensia detect CVE-2024-35960?

Yes — Defensia's CVE advisory scanner compares installed package versions against the NVD database. If the Linux kernel is installed on a monitored server, CVE-2024-35960 will appear in your dashboard with remediation steps.

Related Kernel CVEs

CVE-2024-42256CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix server re-repick on subrequest retry When a subrequest is marked for needing retry, netfs will call cifs_prepare_write() which will make cifs repick the server for the op before renegotiating credits; it then calls cifs_issue_write() which invokes smb2_async_writev() - which re-repicks the server. If a different server is then selected, this causes the increment of server->in_flight to happen against one record and the decrement to happen against another, leading to misaccounting. Fix this by just removing the repick code in smb2_async_writev(). As this is only called from netfslib-driven code, cifs_prepare_write() should always have been called first, and so server should never be NULL and the preparatory step is repeated in the event that we do a retry. The problem manifests as a warning looking something like: WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 72896 at fs/smb/client/smb2ops.c:97 smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... RIP: 0010:smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... smb2_writev_callback+0x334/0x560 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x77a/0x11b0 [cifs] kthread+0x187/0x1d0 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x60 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Which may be triggered by a number of different xfstests running against an Azure server in multichannel mode. generic/249 seems the most repeatable, but generic/215, generic/249 and generic/308 may also show it.
CVE-2024-38612CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: sr: fix invalid unregister error path The error path of seg6_init() is wrong in case CONFIG_IPV6_SEG6_LWTUNNEL is not defined. In that case if seg6_hmac_init() fails, the genl_unregister_family() isn't called. This issue exist since commit 46738b1317e1 ("ipv6: sr: add option to control lwtunnel support"), and commit 5559cea2d5aa ("ipv6: sr: fix possible use-after-free and null-ptr-deref") replaced unregister_pernet_subsys() with genl_unregister_family() in this error path.
CVE-2024-39462CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clk: bcm: dvp: Assign ->num before accessing ->hws Commit f316cdff8d67 ("clk: Annotate struct clk_hw_onecell_data with __counted_by") annotated the hws member of 'struct clk_hw_onecell_data' with __counted_by, which informs the bounds sanitizer about the number of elements in hws, so that it can warn when hws is accessed out of bounds. As noted in that change, the __counted_by member must be initialized with the number of elements before the first array access happens, otherwise there will be a warning from each access prior to the initialization because the number of elements is zero. This occurs in clk_dvp_probe() due to ->num being assigned after ->hws has been accessed: UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in drivers/clk/bcm/clk-bcm2711-dvp.c:59:2 index 0 is out of range for type 'struct clk_hw *[] __counted_by(num)' (aka 'struct clk_hw *[]') Move the ->num initialization to before the first access of ->hws, which clears up the warning.
CVE-2024-38541CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: of: module: add buffer overflow check in of_modalias() In of_modalias(), if the buffer happens to be too small even for the 1st snprintf() call, the len parameter will become negative and str parameter (if not NULL initially) will point beyond the buffer's end. Add the buffer overflow check after the 1st snprintf() call and fix such check after the strlen() call (accounting for the terminating NUL char).
CVE-2021-47548CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethernet: hisilicon: hns: hns_dsaf_misc: fix a possible array overflow in hns_dsaf_ge_srst_by_port() The if statement: if (port >= DSAF_GE_NUM) return; limits the value of port less than DSAF_GE_NUM (i.e., 8). However, if the value of port is 6 or 7, an array overflow could occur: port_rst_off = dsaf_dev->mac_cb[port]->port_rst_off; because the length of dsaf_dev->mac_cb is DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM (i.e., 6). To fix this possible array overflow, we first check port and if it is greater than or equal to DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM, the function returns.

References

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