CVE-2024-36281 net/mlx5: Use mlx5_ipsec_rx_status_destroy to correctly delete status rules

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's mlx5 IPsec driver can cause a system crash when deleting status rules.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2024-36281?

CVE-2024-36281 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Jun 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

net/mlx5: Use mlx5_ipsec_rx_status_destroy to correctly delete status rules

rx_create no longer allocates a modify_hdr instance that needs to be cleaned up. The mlx5_modify_header_dealloc call will lead to a NULL pointer dereference. A leak in the rules also previously occurred since there are now two rules populated related to status.

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 109907067 P4D 109907067 PUD 116890067 PMD 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 1 PID: 484 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.9.0-rc2-rrameshbabu+ #254 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS Arch Linux 1.16.3-1-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:mlx5_modify_header_dealloc+0xd/0x70 <snip> Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0x60/0x70 ? __die+0x24/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x15f/0x430 ? free_to_partial_list.constprop.0+0x79/0x150 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2c9/0x5c0 ? exc_page_fault+0x63/0x110 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30 ? mlx5_modify_header_dealloc+0xd/0x70 rx_create+0x374/0x590 rx_add_rule+0x3ad/0x500 ? rx_add_rule+0x3ad/0x500 ? mlx5_cmd_exec+0x2c/0x40 ? mlx5_create_ipsec_obj+0xd6/0x200 mlx5e_accel_ipsec_fs_add_rule+0x31/0xf0 mlx5e_xfrm_add_state+0x426/0xc00 <snip>

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-36281?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-36281?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-36281 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-36281 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-36281, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-36281, GHSA-6x25-7hx6-jxf2, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-36281.

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