net/mlx5e: Fix publication race for priv->channel_stats[]
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-72341 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | Linux |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-08-15 06:22:07 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-08-17 06:18:37 UTC |
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Fix publication race for priv->channel_stats[] mlx5e_channel_stats_alloc() publishes a new entry to priv->channel_stats[] and then increments priv->stats_nch as a publication token, but neither store carries any memory barrier: priv->channel_stats[ix] = kvzalloc_node(...); if (!priv->channel_stats[ix]) return -ENOMEM; priv->stats_nch++; Concurrent readers compute the loop bound from priv->stats_nch and then dereference priv->channel_stats[i] using plain accesses, e.g. for (i = 0; i < priv->stats_nch; i++) { struct mlx5e_channel_stats *cs = priv->channel_stats[i]; ... cs->rq.packets ... } On weakly-ordered architectures (ARM, PowerPC, RISC-V) the writes to channel_stats[ix] and stats_nch may become visible to other CPUs out of program order. A reader can observe stats_nch == N while still seeing channel_stats[N-1] == NULL, leading to a NULL pointer dereference in the channel_stats loop. This has been observed in production on BlueField-3 DPUs (arm64), where ovs-vswitchd queries netdev statistics over netlink during NIC bringup, racing mlx5e_open_channel() -> mlx5e_channel_stats_alloc() on another CPU: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0x840 Hardware name: BlueField-3 DPU pc : mlx5e_fold_sw_stats64+0x30/0x180 [mlx5_core] Call trace: mlx5e_fold_sw_stats64+0x30/0x180 [mlx5_core] dev_get_stats+0x50/0xc0 ovs_vport_get_stats+0x38/0xac [openvswitch] ovs_vport_cmd_fill_info+0x194/0x290 [openvswitch] ovs_vport_cmd_get+0xbc/0x10c [openvswitch] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0xd0/0x160 genl_rcv_msg+0xec/0x1f0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x64/0x130 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 netlink_unicast+0x2fc/0x370 netlink_sendmsg+0x1dc/0x454 ... __arm64_sys_sendmsg+0x2c/0x40 Add mlx5e_stats_nch_write() and mlx5e_stats_nch_read() helpers in en.h that wrap the smp_store_release()/smp_load_acquire() pair on stats_nch. The release/acquire pair establishes the contract: stats_nch == N => channel_stats[0..N-1] are visible and non-NULL. Publish the stats_nch increment via mlx5e_stats_nch_write() in the writer (mlx5e_channel_stats_alloc()), and read stats_nch via mlx5e_stats_nch_read() in all readers: mlx5e RX/TX queue stats, mlx5e_get_base_stats(), ethtool channels stats, IPoIB stats, the sw_stats fold and the HV VHCA stats agent. |
Risk And Classification
EPSS: 0.002070000 probability, percentile 0.110500000 (date 2026-08-17)
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Linux | Linux | affected fa691d0c9c0812b9045f3a9420862e47b3b92518 5c7e3755abf663f033de24f917b77685e9543045 git | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | affected fa691d0c9c0812b9045f3a9420862e47b3b92518 815515ec68f527ca755cb1e2c1ff9148f6b3ea56 git | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | affected fa691d0c9c0812b9045f3a9420862e47b3b92518 5a799714e8ca0bce9ea40694f49914cf1adbbaa9 git | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | affected 5.17 | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | unaffected 5.17 semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | unaffected 6.18.40 6.18.* semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | unaffected 7.1.5 7.1.* semver | Not specified |
| CNA | Linux | Linux | unaffected 7.2 * original_commit_for_fix | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| git.kernel.org/stable/c/815515ec68f527ca755cb1e2c1ff9148f6b3ea56 | 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 | git.kernel.org | |
| git.kernel.org/stable/c/5c7e3755abf663f033de24f917b77685e9543045 | 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 | git.kernel.org | |
| git.kernel.org/stable/c/5a799714e8ca0bce9ea40694f49914cf1adbbaa9 | 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 | git.kernel.org | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.