Bug 2532100 (CVE-2026-89511)

Summary: CVE-2026-89511 kernel: qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the qede driver in the Linux kernel. Under specific memory pressure conditions, the driver can encounter a NULL pointer dereference when processing network traffic using TPA (TCP Segmentation Offload) continuation fragments. This issue stems from an uninitialized data pointer, which can lead to the system attempting to use an invalid memory page. Consequently, this can trigger a kernel panic, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) for the affected system.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-11 20:34:01 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

qede: Fix NULL pointer dereference in TPA fragment processing

Under memory pressure, the qede driver encounters NULL pointer
dereferences when processing TPA continuation fragments.

Commit 8a8633978b84 ("qede: Add build_skb() support.") accidentally
dropped the assignment of tpa_info->buffer.data in qede_tpa_start().

When memory pressure causes an SKB allocation failure in qede_tpa_start(),
the driver sets tpa_start_fail = true and attempts to recycle the physical
page later in qede_tpa_end() via qede_reuse_page(). However, because
buffer.data was left uninitialized (NULL), qede_reuse_page() pushes a
"ghost" BD (valid DMA mapping but NULL data pointer) back into the
active Rx ring.

The next time the hardware uses this ring slot, it passes a NULL page
to qede_fill_frag_skb(), causing a kernel panic.

Example crash from production system:
 BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0x8
 RIP: qede_fill_frag_skb+0x96/0x430 [qede]
 Call Trace:
   qede_rx_int+0xb06/0x1de0
   qede_poll+0x2f4/0x6c0
   __napi_poll+0x2d/0x130

Fix the root cause by restoring the tpa_info->buffer.data assignment
in qede_tpa_start(), ensuring valid pages are correctly tracked and
recycled. Additionally, update the stale comment for
struct qede_agg_info::buffer to reflect its current usage.