CVE-2024-40923 vmxnet3: disable rx data ring on dma allocation failure

Critical 9.8 Published 12 Jul 2024 Updated 5 Aug 2026

A flaw in the vmxnet3 driver causes a kernel crash when DMA allocation fails, leading to denial of service.

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

What is CVE-2024-40923?

CVE-2024-40923 is a critical vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Jul 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

vmxnet3: disable rx data ring on dma allocation failure

When vmxnet3_rq_create() fails to allocate memory for rq->data_ring.base, the subsequent call to vmxnet3_rq_destroy_all_rxdataring does not reset rq->data_ring.desc_size for the data ring that failed, which presumably causes the hypervisor to reference it on packet reception.

To fix this bug, rq->data_ring.desc_size needs to be set to 0 to tell the hypervisor to disable this feature.

[ 95.436876] kernel BUG at net/core/skbuff.c:207! [ 95.439074] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 95.440411] CPU: 7 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/7 Not tainted 6.9.3-dirty #1 [ 95.441558] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 12/12/2018 [ 95.443481] RIP: 0010:skb_panic+0x4d/0x4f [ 95.444404] Code: 4f 70 50 8b 87 c0 00 00 00 50 8b 87 bc 00 00 00 50 ff b7 d0 00 00 00 4c 8b 8f c8 00 00 00 48 c7 c7 68 e8 be 9f e8 63 58 f9 ff <0f> 0b 48 8b 14 24 48 c7 c1 d0 73 65 9f e8 a1 ff ff ff 48 8b 14 24 [ 95.447684] RSP: 0018:ffffa13340274dd0 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 95.448762] RAX: 0000000000000089 RBX: ffff8fbbc72b02d0 RCX: 000000000000083f [ 95.450148] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000000000f6 RDI: 000000000000083f [ 95.451520] RBP: 000000000000002d R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffa13340274c60 [ 95.452886] R10: ffffffffa04ed468 R11: 0000000000000002 R12: 0000000000000000 [ 95.454293] R13: ffff8fbbdab3c2d0 R14: ffff8fbbdbd829e0 R15: ffff8fbbdbd809e0 [ 95.455682] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8fbeefd80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 95.457178] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 95.458340] CR2: 00007fd0d1f650c8 CR3: 0000000115f28000 CR4: 00000000000406f0 [ 95.459791] Call Trace: [ 95.460515] <IRQ> [ 95.461180] ? __die_body.cold+0x19/0x27 [ 95.462150] ? die+0x2e/0x50 [ 95.462976] ? do_trap+0xca/0x110 [ 95.463973] ? do_error_trap+0x6a/0x90 [ 95.464966] ? skb_panic+0x4d/0x4f [ 95.465901] ? exc_invalid_op+0x50/0x70 [ 95.466849] ? skb_panic+0x4d/0x4f [ 95.467718] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 [ 95.468758] ? skb_panic+0x4d/0x4f [ 95.469655] skb_put.cold+0x10/0x10 [ 95.470573] vmxnet3_rq_rx_complete+0x862/0x11e0 [vmxnet3] [ 95.471853] vmxnet3_poll_rx_only+0x36/0xb0 [vmxnet3] [ 95.473185] __napi_poll+0x2b/0x160 [ 95.474145] net_rx_action+0x2c6/0x3b0 [ 95.475115] handle_softirqs+0xe7/0x2a0 [ 95.476122] __irq_exit_rcu+0x97/0xb0 [ 95.477109] common_interrupt+0x85/0xa0 [ 95.478102] </IRQ> [ 95.478846] <TASK> [ 95.479603] asm_common_interrupt+0x26/0x40 [ 95.480657] RIP: 0010:pv_native_safe_halt+0xf/0x20 [ 95.481801] Code: 22 d7 e9 54 87 01 00 0f 1f 40 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa eb 07 0f 00 2d 93 ba 3b 00 fb f4 <e9> 2c 87 01 00 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 [ 95.485563] RSP: 0018:ffffa133400ffe58 EFLAGS: 00000246 [ 95.486882] RAX: 0000000000004000 RBX: ffff8fbbc1d14064 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 95.488477] RDX: ffff8fbeefd80000 RSI: ffff8fbbc1d14000 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 95.490067] RBP: ffff8fbbc1d14064 R08: ffffffffa0652260 R09: 00000000000010d3 [ 95.491683] R10: 0000000000000018 R11: ffff8fbeefdb4764 R12: ffffffffa0652260 [ 95.493389] R13: ffffffffa06522e0 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 95.495035] acpi_safe_halt+0x14/0x20 [ 95.496127] acpi_idle_do_entry+0x2f/0x50 [ 95.497221] acpi_idle_enter+0x7f/0xd0 [ 95.498272] cpuidle_enter_state+0x81/0x420 [ 95.499375] cpuidle_enter+0x2d/0x40 [ 95.500400] do_idle+0x1e5/0x240 [ 95.501385] cpu_startup_entry+0x29/0x30 [ 95.502422] start_secondary+0x11c/0x140 [ 95.503454] common_startup_64+0x13e/0x141 [ 95.504466] </TASK> [ 95.505197] Modules linked in: nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ip ---truncated---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-40923?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-40923?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-40923 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-40923 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-40923, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-40923, GHSA-f5c9-7r2c-mghc, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-40923.