CVE-2024-53138: net/mlx5e: kTLS, Fix incorrect page refcounting

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-12-04 · updated 2026-10-15

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: kTLS, Fix incorrect page refcounting The kTLS tx handling code is using a mix of get_page() and page_ref_inc() APIs to increment the page reference. But on the release path (mlx5e_ktls_tx_handle_resync_dump_comp()), only put_page() is used. This is an issue when using pages from large folios: the get_page() references are stored on the folio page while the page_ref_inc() references are stored directly in the given page. On release the folio page will be dereferenced too many times. This was found while doing kTLS testing with sendfile() + ZC when the served file was read from NFS on a kernel with NFS large folios support (commit 49b29a573da8 ("nfs: add support for large folios")).

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.4 before 6.1.119; from 6.2 before 6.6.63; from 6.7 before 6.11.10; 6.12-rc1, 6.12-rc2, 6.12-rc3, 6.12-rc4, 6.12-rc5, 6.12-rc6 (+1) — fixed in 6.1.119, 6.11.10, 6.6.63

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.1.119, 6.11.10, 6.6.63. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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