CVE-2024-46857

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/mlx5: Fix bridge mode operations when there are no VFs

Currently, trying to set the bridge mode attribute when numvfs=0 leads to a crash:

bridge link set dev eth2 hwmode vepa

[ 168.967392] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000030 […] [ 168.969989] RIP: 0010:mlx5_add_flow_rules+0x1f/0x300 [mlx5_core] […] [ 168.976037] Call Trace: [ 168.976188] [ 168.978620] _mlx5_eswitch_set_vepa_locked+0x113/0x230 [mlx5_core] [ 168.979074] mlx5_eswitch_set_vepa+0x7f/0xa0 [mlx5_core] [ 168.979471] rtnl_bridge_setlink+0xe9/0x1f0 [ 168.979714] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x159/0x400 [ 168.980451] netlink_rcv_skb+0x54/0x100 [ 168.980675] netlink_unicast+0x241/0x360 [ 168.980918] netlink_sendmsg+0x1f6/0x430 [ 168.981162] ____sys_sendmsg+0x3bb/0x3f0 [ 168.982155] ___sys_sendmsg+0x88/0xd0 [ 168.985036] __sys_sendmsg+0x59/0xa0 [ 168.985477] do_syscall_64+0x79/0x150 [ 168.987273] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 168.987773] RIP: 0033:0x7f8f7950f917

(esw->fdb_table.legacy.vepa_fdb is null)

The bridge mode is only relevant when there are multiple functions per port. Therefore, prevent setting and getting this setting when there are no VFs.

Note that after this change, there are no settings to change on the PF interface using bridge link when there are no VFs, so the interface no longer appears in the bridge link output.

Weakness

A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/505ae01f75f839b54329164bbfecf24cc1361b31
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/52c4beb79e095e0631b5cac46ed48a2aefe51985
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/65feee671e37f3b6eda0b6af28f204b5bcf7fa50
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1d305abef4640af1b4f1b4774d513cd81b10cfc