# CVE-2024-41066: ibmvnic: Add tx check to prevent skb leak

> A memory leak in the ibmvnic driver can cause TCP congestion control failures, leading to network timeouts and denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 29 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-48993, BELL-CVE-2024-41066, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-41066, GHSA-j7w3-jhcq-frvr, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-41066, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-41066

## What is CVE-2024-41066?

CVE-2024-41066 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 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:

ibmvnic: Add tx check to prevent skb leak

Below is a summary of how the driver stores a reference to an skb during
transmit:
    tx_buff[free_map[consumer_index]]->skb = new_skb;
    free_map[consumer_index] = IBMVNIC_INVALID_MAP;
    consumer_index ++;
Where variable data looks like this:
    free_map == [4, IBMVNIC_INVALID_MAP, IBMVNIC_INVALID_MAP, 0, 3]
                                               	consumer_index^
    tx_buff == [skb=null, skb=<ptr>, skb=<ptr>, skb=null, skb=null]

The driver has checks to ensure that free_map[consumer_index] pointed to
a valid index but there was no check to ensure that this index pointed
to an unused/null skb address. So, if, by some chance, our free_map and
tx_buff lists become out of sync then we were previously risking an
skb memory leak. This could then cause tcp congestion control to stop
sending packets, eventually leading to ETIMEDOUT.

Therefore, add a conditional to ensure that the skb address is null. If
not then warn the user (because this is still a bug that should be
patched) and free the old pointer to prevent memleak/tcp problems.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-41066?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-41066?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-41066 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-41066 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-41066 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-41066 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Jul 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-41066 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-41066/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-41066/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-41066
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-41066
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-41066

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-41066/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.