CVE-2025-21681

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

openvswitch: fix lockup on tx to unregistering netdev with carrier

Commit in a fixes tag attempted to fix the issue in the following sequence of calls:

do_output
-> ovs_vport_send
   -> dev_queue_xmit
      -> __dev_queue_xmit
         -> netdev_core_pick_tx
            -> skb_tx_hash

When device is unregistering, the dev->real_num_tx_queues goes to zero and the while (unlikely(hash >= qcount)) loop inside the skb_tx_hash becomes infinite, locking up the core forever.

But unfortunately, checking just the carrier status is not enough to fix the issue, because some devices may still be in unregistering state while reporting carrier status OK.

One example of such device is a net/dummy. It sets carrier ON on start, but it doesnt implement .ndo_stop to set the carrier off. And it makes sense, because dummy doesnt really have a carrier. Therefore, while this device is unregistering, its still easy to hit the infinite loop in the skb_tx_hash() from the OVS datapath. There might be other drivers that do the same, but dummy by itself is important for the OVS ecosystem, because it is frequently used as a packet sink for tcpdump while debugging OVS deployments. And when the issue is hit, the only way to recover is to reboot.

Fix that by also checking if the device is running. The running state is handled by the net core during unregistering, so it covers unregistering case better, and we dont really need to send packets to devices that are not running anyway.

While only checking the running state might be enough, the carrier check is preserved. The running and the carrier states seem disjoined throughout the code and different drivers. And other core functions like __dev_direct_xmit() check both before attempting to transmit a packet. So, it seems safer to check both flags in OVS as well.

Weakness

The product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop.

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/47e55e4b410f7d552e43011baa5be1aab4093990
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/82f433e8dd0629e16681edf6039d094b5518d8ed
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ea966b6698785fb9cd0fdb867acd91b222e4723f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ea9e990356b7bee95440ba0e6e83cc4d701afaca