CVE-2024-49947 net: test for not too small csum_start in virtio_net_hdr_to_skb()

What is CVE-2024-49947?

CVE-2024-49947 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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: test for not too small csum_start in virtio_net_hdr_to_skb()

syzbot was able to trigger this warning [1], after injecting a malicious packet through af_packet, setting skb->csum_start and thus the transport header to an incorrect value.

We can at least make sure the transport header is after the end of the network header (with a estimated minimal size).

[1] [ 67.873027] skb len=4096 headroom=16 headlen=14 tailroom=0 mac=(-1,-1) mac_len=0 net=(16,-6) trans=10 shinfo(txflags=0 nr_frags=1 gso(size=0 type=0 segs=0)) csum(0xa start=10 offset=0 ip_summed=3 complete_sw=0 valid=0 level=0) hash(0x0 sw=0 l4=0) proto=0x0800 pkttype=0 iif=0 priority=0x0 mark=0x0 alloc_cpu=10 vlan_all=0x0 encapsulation=0 inner(proto=0x0000, mac=0, net=0, trans=0) [ 67.877172] dev name=veth0_vlan feat=0x000061164fdd09e9 [ 67.877764] sk family=17 type=3 proto=0 [ 67.878279] skb linear: 00000000: 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 0f 00 00 00 08 00 [ 67.879128] skb frag: 00000000: 0e 00 07 00 00 00 28 00 08 80 1c 00 04 00 00 02 [ 67.879877] skb frag: 00000010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.880647] skb frag: 00000020: 00 00 02 00 00 00 08 00 1b 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.881156] skb frag: 00000030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.881753] skb frag: 00000040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.882173] skb frag: 00000050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.882790] skb frag: 00000060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.883171] skb frag: 00000070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.883733] skb frag: 00000080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.884206] skb frag: 00000090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 69 70 76 6c 61 6e [ 67.884704] skb frag: 000000a0: 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2b 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.885139] skb frag: 000000b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.885677] skb frag: 000000c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.886042] skb frag: 000000d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.886408] skb frag: 000000e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.887020] skb frag: 000000f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [ 67.887384] skb frag: 00000100: 00 00 [ 67.887878] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 67.887908] offset (-6) >= skb_headlen() (14) [ 67.888445] WARNING: CPU: 10 PID: 2088 at net/core/dev.c:3332 skb_checksum_help (net/core/dev.c:3332 (discriminator 2)) [ 67.889353] Modules linked in: macsec macvtap macvlan hsr wireguard curve25519_x86_64 libcurve25519_generic libchacha20poly1305 chacha_x86_64 libchacha poly1305_x86_64 dummy bridge sr_mod cdrom evdev pcspkr i2c_piix4 9pnet_virtio 9p 9pnet netfs [ 67.890111] CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 2088 Comm: b363492833 Not tainted 6.11.0-virtme #1011 [ 67.890183] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 67.890309] RIP: 0010:skb_checksum_help (net/core/dev.c:3332 (discriminator 2)) [ 67.891043] Call Trace: [ 67.891173] <TASK> [ 67.891274] ? __warn (kernel/panic.c:741) [ 67.891320] ? skb_checksum_help (net/core/dev.c:3332 (discriminator 2)) [ 67.891333] ? report_bug (lib/bug.c:180 lib/bug.c:219) [ 67.891348] ? handle_bug (arch/x86/kernel/traps.c:239) [ 67.891363] ? exc_invalid_op (arch/x86/kernel/traps.c:260 (discriminator 1)) [ 67.891372] ? asm_exc_invalid_op (./arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:621) [ 67.891388] ? skb_checksum_help (net/core/dev.c:3332 (discriminator 2)) [ 67.891399] ? skb_checksum_help (net/core/dev.c:3332 (discriminator 2)) [ 67.891416] ip_do_fragment (net/ipv4/ip_output.c:777 (discriminator 1)) [ 67.891448] ? __ip_local_out (./include/linux/skbuff.h:1146 ./include/net/l3mdev.h:196 ./include/net/l3mdev.h:213 ne ---truncated---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-49947?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-49947?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2024-49947 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-49947 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-49947, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-49947, GHSA-m5m5-6fc4-ph6r, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-49947.