Bug 2516442 (CVE-2026-72343) - CVE-2026-72343 kernel: net/mlx5e: Fix HV VHCA stats zero-sized buffer allocation
Summary: CVE-2026-72343 kernel: net/mlx5e: Fix HV VHCA stats zero-sized buffer allocation
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-72343
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-08-15 06:12 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-08-19 13:33 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:12:43 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/mlx5e: Fix HV VHCA stats zero-sized buffer allocation

mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() is called from mlx5e_nic_enable(),
before mlx5e_open(). At that point priv->stats_nch is still zero,
because it is only ever incremented in mlx5e_channel_stats_alloc(),
which is reached only from mlx5e_open_channel().

mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_size() therefore returns 0, and
kvzalloc(0, GFP_KERNEL) returns ZERO_SIZE_PTR ((void *)16) rather
than NULL. The "if (!buf)" guard does not catch this, and
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() completes "successfully" with
priv->stats_agent.buf set to ZERO_SIZE_PTR.

Once channels are opened (priv->stats_nch > 0) and the hypervisor
enables stats reporting, mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_work() recomputes
buf_len using the new non-zero stats_nch and calls
memset(buf, 0, buf_len) on ZERO_SIZE_PTR, faulting at address 0x10.

Allocate the buffer based on priv->max_nch, which is set in
mlx5e_priv_init() and is the upper bound on stats_nch:

  - Add a separate helper mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_max_size() that
    returns sizeof(per_ring_stats) * max(max_nch, stats_nch), and
    use it for the kvzalloc() in mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create().
  - Keep mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_size() (which returns based on
    stats_nch) for the worker's active payload size, so the wire
    format (block->rings = stats_nch) and the amount of data filled
    by mlx5e_hv_vhca_fill_stats() are unchanged.

The max(max_nch, stats_nch) guard handles the rare case where
mlx5e_attach_netdev() recomputes max_nch downward across a
detach/resume cycle while priv->stats_nch persists (mlx5e_detach_netdev
does not call mlx5e_priv_cleanup, so stats_nch is only reset when
the netdev is destroyed). Without the guard, the worker could compute
buf_len from stats_nch and overrun the smaller buffer allocated based
on the reduced max_nch.

Allocating a non-zero buffer also makes the kvzalloc() failure path in
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() reachable for the first time: it returns
early without (re)creating the agent. Clear
priv->stats_agent.{agent,buf} in mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_destroy() after
freeing them, so that if a later create() bails out on this path, a
subsequent teardown does not double-free the stale agent/buffer left
from a previous enable/disable cycle.

This mirrors the existing mlx5e pattern of preallocating arrays of
size max_nch (e.g. priv->channel_stats) and lazily populating
entries up to stats_nch on demand.


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