CVE-2024-43864
CriticalCVSS 9.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk11th percentile - higher than 11% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, in the mlx5e driver, updating a CT entry can leak the modify header context. If allocation of a new modify header fails, the pointer to the old one is lost, and freeing an error pointer can cause a kernel panic.
Risk Assessment
The risk includes system instability (kernel panic) and potential memory leaks, which may lead to service outages on the host.
Recommendation
It is recommended to update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that restores the old modify header context when allocation of a new one fails.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Fix CT entry update leaks of modify header context The cited commit allocates a new modify header to replace the old one when updating CT entry. But if failed to allocate a new one, eg. exceed the max number firmware can support, modify header will be an error pointer that will trigger a panic when deallocating it. And the old modify header point is copied to old attr. When the old attr is freed, the old modify header is lost. Fix it by restoring the old attr to attr when failed to allocate a new modify header context. So when the CT entry is freed, the right modify header context will be freed. And the panic of accessing error pointer is also fixed.