CVE-2023-3966 Openvswsitch: ovs-vswitch fails to recover after malformed geneve metadata packet

High 7.5 Published 22 Feb 2024 Updated 13 Feb 2025

Attackers can cause denial of service in Open vSwitch by sending malformed Geneve packets when hardware offloading is enabled.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2023-3966?

CVE-2023-3966 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 22 Feb 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in Open vSwitch where multiple versions are vulnerable to crafted Geneve packets, which may result in a denial of service and invalid memory accesses. Triggering this issue requires that hardware offloading via the netlink path is enabled.

Weakness: CWE-248

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-3966?

It affects 2 products.

Linux distribution packages (21)

`openvswitch` SUSE:Enterprise Storage 7.1	All versions	`2.14.2-150300.19.20.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS	All versions	`2.13.2-150200.9.34.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS	All versions	`2.14.2-150300.19.20.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch3` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5	All versions	`3.1.0-150500.3.16.1`
`openvswitch3` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5	All versions	`3.1.0-150500.3.16.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP5	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP5	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch3` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5	All versions	`3.1.0-150500.3.16.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS	All versions	`2.13.2-150200.9.34.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS	All versions	`2.14.2-150300.19.20.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2	All versions	`2.13.2-150200.9.34.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3	All versions	`2.14.2-150300.19.20.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Manager Proxy 4.3	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` SUSE:Manager Server 4.3	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch` openSUSE:Leap 15.5	All versions	`2.14.2-150400.24.23.1`
`openvswitch3` openSUSE:Leap 15.5	All versions	`3.1.0-150500.3.16.1`
`openvswitch` openSUSE:Tumbleweed	All versions	`3.1.0-19.1`

Products include Fedoraproject Fedora, Openvswitch Openvswitch.

How do I fix CVE-2023-3966?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2023-3966 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-3966 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Fedoraproject Fedora vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-35089, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-3966, GHSA-r9cj-pfgj-jc26, OESA-2024-1207, SUSE-SU-2024:0738-1, SUSE-SU-2024:0738-2 and 5 more.