CVE-2026-43012 net/mlx5: Fix switchdev mode rollback in case of failure
A flaw in the mlx5 driver causes a kernel crash during switchdev mode rollback, leading to denial of service.
- 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-2026-43012?
CVE-2026-43012 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2026. 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: Fix switchdev mode rollback in case of failure
If for some internal reason switchdev mode fails, we rollback to legacy mode, before this patch, rollback will unregister the uplink netdev and leave it unregistered causing the below kernel bug.
To fix this, we need to avoid netdev unregister by setting the proper rollback flag 'MLX5_PRIV_FLAGS_SWITCH_LEGACY' to indicate legacy mode.
devlink (431) used greatest stack depth: 11048 bytes left mlx5_core 0000:00:03.0: E-Switch: Disable: mode(LEGACY), nvfs(0), \ necvfs(0), active vports(0) mlx5_core 0000:00:03.0: E-Switch: Supported tc chains and prios offload mlx5_core 0000:00:03.0: Loading uplink representor for vport 65535 mlx5_core 0000:00:03.0: mlx5_cmd_out_err:816:(pid 456): \ QUERY_HCA_CAP(0x100) op_mod(0x0) failed, \ status bad parameter(0x3), syndrome (0x3a3846), err(-22) mlx5_core 0000:00:03.0 enp0s3np0 (unregistered): Unloading uplink \ representor for vport 65535 ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at net/core/dev.c:12070! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 456 Comm: devlink Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3+ \ #9 PREEMPT(voluntary) RIP: 0010:unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x123/0xae0 ... Call Trace: [ 90.923094] unregister_netdevice_queue+0xad/0xf0 [ 90.923323] unregister_netdev+0x1c/0x40 [ 90.923522] mlx5e_vport_rep_unload+0x61/0xc6 [ 90.923736] esw_offloads_enable+0x8e6/0x920 [ 90.923947] mlx5_eswitch_enable_locked+0x349/0x430 [ 90.924182] ? is_mp_supported+0x57/0xb0 [ 90.924376] mlx5_devlink_eswitch_mode_set+0x167/0x350 [ 90.924628] devlink_nl_eswitch_set_doit+0x6f/0xf0 [ 90.924862] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0xe8/0x140 [ 90.925088] genl_rcv_msg+0x18b/0x290 [ 90.925269] ? __pfx_devlink_nl_pre_doit+0x10/0x10 [ 90.925506] ? __pfx_devlink_nl_eswitch_set_doit+0x10/0x10 [ 90.925766] ? __pfx_devlink_nl_post_doit+0x10/0x10 [ 90.926001] ? __pfx_genl_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 [ 90.926206] netlink_rcv_skb+0x52/0x100 [ 90.926393] genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 [ 90.926557] netlink_unicast+0x27d/0x3d0 [ 90.926749] netlink_sendmsg+0x1f7/0x430 [ 90.926942] __sys_sendto+0x213/0x220 [ 90.927127] ? __sys_recvmsg+0x6a/0xd0 [ 90.927312] __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 [ 90.927504] do_syscall_64+0x50/0x1c0 [ 90.927687] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 90.927929] RIP: 0033:0x7f7d0363e047
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43012?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-43012?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-43012 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43012 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-43012, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43012, GHSA-x4q9-gx2x-rgxq, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43012, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43012.