CVE-2024-50145: octeon_ep: Add SKB allocation failures handling in __octep_oq_process_rx()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-11-07 · updated 2026-08-04
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: octeon_ep: Add SKB allocation failures handling in __octep_oq_process_rx() build_skb() returns NULL in case of a memory allocation failure so handle it inside __octep_oq_process_rx() to avoid NULL pointer dereference. __octep_oq_process_rx() is called during NAPI polling by the driver. If skb allocation fails, keep on pulling packets out of the Rx DMA queue: we shouldn't break the polling immediately and thus falsely indicate to the octep_napi_poll() that the Rx pressure is going down. As there is no associated skb in this case, don't process the packets and don't push them up the network stack - they are skipped. Helper function is implemented to unmmap/flush all the fragment buffers used by the dropped packet. 'alloc_failures' counter is incremented to mark the skb allocation error in driver statistics. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.19 before 6.1.115; from 6.2 before 6.6.59; from 6.7 before 6.11.6; 6.12-rc1, 6.12-rc2, 6.12-rc3, 6.12-rc4 — fixed in 6.1.115, 6.11.6, 6.6.59

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.1.115, 6.11.6, 6.6.59. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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