Bug 2532251 (CVE-2026-80988)

Summary: CVE-2026-80988 kernel: NTB: ntb_transport: Fail TX enqueue when the QP link is down
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
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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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB) transport module. When the NTB transport attempts to transmit packets while the Queue Pair (QP) link is down, the system incorrectly reports a successful transmission without properly consuming the packet. This oversight leads to a memory leak, where system memory is not released, potentially affecting system stability and performance over an extended period.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-11 21:42:57 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

NTB: ntb_transport: Fail TX enqueue when the QP link is down

Commit f195a1a6fe41 ("ntb: Drop packets when qp link is down") meant to
make ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() drop packets submitted while the QP link
is down, but it only returns 0 without consuming the packet. Zero means
success by this function's contract, so ntb_netdev reports NETDEV_TX_OK
and forgets the skb: nothing queued it, nothing frees it, and it leaks,
one skb for every transmit racing a link-down.

Return -ENOLINK instead, restoring the contract that a non-zero return
leaves the buffer owned by the caller. With the preceding patch,
ntb_netdev frees the skb on non-retryable enqueue failures and returns
NETDEV_TX_OK, so a packet racing with link-down is dropped without leaking
or entering a busy retry loop.