CVE-2024-35981

NameCVE-2024-35981
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: virtio_net: Do not send RSS key if it is not supported There is a bug when setting the RSS options in virtio_net that can break the whole machine, getting the kernel into an infinite loop. Running the following command in any QEMU virtual machine with virtionet will reproduce this problem: # ethtool -X eth0 hfunc toeplitz This is how the problem happens: 1) ethtool_set_rxfh() calls virtnet_set_rxfh() 2) virtnet_set_rxfh() calls virtnet_commit_rss_command() 3) virtnet_commit_rss_command() populates 4 entries for the rss scatter-gather 4) Since the command above does not have a key, then the last scatter-gatter entry will be zeroed, since rss_key_size == 0. sg_buf_size = vi->rss_key_size; 5) This buffer is passed to qemu, but qemu is not happy with a buffer with zero length, and do the following in virtqueue_map_desc() (QEMU function): if (!sz) { virtio_error(vdev, "virtio: zero sized buffers are not allowed"); 6) virtio_error() (also QEMU function) set the device as broken vdev->broken = true; 7) Qemu bails out, and do not repond this crazy kernel. 8) The kernel is waiting for the response to come back (function virtnet_send_command()) 9) The kernel is waiting doing the following : while (!virtqueue_get_buf(vi->cvq, &tmp) && !virtqueue_is_broken(vi->cvq)) cpu_relax(); 10) None of the following functions above is true, thus, the kernel loops here forever. Keeping in mind that virtqueue_is_broken() does not look at the qemu `vdev->broken`, so, it never realizes that the vitio is broken at QEMU side. Fix it by not sending RSS commands if the feature is not available in the device.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)jessie, jessie (lts)3.16.84-1vulnerable
stretch (security)4.9.320-2vulnerable
stretch (lts), stretch4.9.320-3vulnerable
buster (security), buster, buster (lts)4.19.316-1fixed
bullseye5.10.223-1fixed
bullseye (security)5.10.226-1fixed
bookworm6.1.115-1fixed
bookworm (security)6.1.112-1fixed
trixie6.11.7-1fixed
sid6.11.9-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsourcejessie(unfixed)end-of-life
linuxsourcestretch(unfixed)end-of-life
linuxsourcebuster(not affected)
linuxsourcebullseye(not affected)
linuxsourcebookworm6.1.90-1
linuxsource(unstable)6.8.9-1

Notes

[bullseye] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[buster] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://git.kernel.org/linus/059a49aa2e25c58f90b50151f109dd3c4cdb3a47 (6.9-rc4)

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