openvswitch: fix stack OOB read while fragmenting IPv4 packets
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: openvswitch: fix stack OOB read while fragmenting IPv4 packets running openvswitch on kernels built with KASAN, it's possible to see the following splat while testing fragmentation of IPv4 packets: BUG: KASAN: stack-out-of-bounds in ip_do_fragment+0x1b03/0x1f60 Read of size 1 at addr ffff888112fc713c by task handler2/1367 CPU: 0 PID: 1367 Comm: handler2 Not tainted 5.12.0-rc6+ #418 Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS 1.11.1-4.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab 04/01/2014 Call Trace: dump_stack+0x92/0xc1 print_address_description.constprop.7+0x1a/0x150 kasan_report.cold.13+0x7f/0x111 ip_do_fragment+0x1b03/0x1f60 ovs_fragment+0x5bf/0x840 [openvswitch] do_execute_actions+0x1bd5/0x2400 [openvswitch] ovs_execute_actions+0xc8/0x3d0 [openvswitch] ovs_packet_cmd_execute+0xa39/0x1150 [openvswitch] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit.isra.15+0x227/0x2d0 genl_rcv_msg+0x287/0x490 netlink_rcv_skb+0x120/0x380 genl_rcv+0x24/0x40 netlink_unicast+0x439/0x630 netlink_sendmsg+0x719/0xbf0 sock_sendmsg+0xe2/0x110 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5ba/0x890 ___sys_sendmsg+0xe9/0x160 __sys_sendmsg+0xd3/0x170 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae RIP: 0033:0x7f957079db07 Code: c3 66 90 41 54 41 89 d4 55 48 89 f5 53 89 fb 48 83 ec 10 e8 eb ec ff ff 44 89 e2 48 89 ee 89 df 41 89 c0 b8 2e 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 35 44 89 c7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 24 ed ff ff 48 RSP: 002b:00007f956ce35a50 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000019 RCX: 00007f957079db07 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007f956ce35ae0 RDI: 0000000000000019 RBP: 00007f956ce35ae0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007f9558006730 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007f956ce37308 R14: 00007f956ce35f80 R15: 00007f956ce35ae0 The buggy address belongs to the page: page:00000000af2a1d93 refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x112fc7 flags: 0x17ffffc0000000() raw: 0017ffffc0000000 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 0000000000000000 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected addr ffff888112fc713c is located in stack of task handler2/1367 at offset 180 in frame: ovs_fragment+0x0/0x840 [openvswitch] this frame has 2 objects: [32, 144) 'ovs_dst' [192, 424) 'ovs_rt' Memory state around the buggy address: ffff888112fc7000: f3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ffff888112fc7080: 00 f1 f1 f1 f1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >ffff888112fc7100: 00 00 00 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ^ ffff888112fc7180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ffff888112fc7200: 00 00 00 00 00 00 f2 f2 f2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 for IPv4 packets, ovs_fragment() uses a temporary struct dst_entry. Then, in the following call graph: ip_do_fragment() ip_skb_dst_mtu() ip_dst_mtu_maybe_forward() ip_mtu_locked() the pointer to struct dst_entry is used as pointer to struct rtable: this turns the access to struct members like rt_mtu_locked into an OOB read in the stack. Fix this changing the temporary variable used for IPv4 packets in ovs_fragment(), similarly to what is done for IPv6 few lines below.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 4.4.134 to before 4.4.269; 4.9.104 to before 4.9.269; 4.14.45 to before 4.14.233; 3.16.57 to before 3.17 | 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 3.17 | Patch available | CNA |
| Linux | Linux | 4.16 and later | 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 4.19.191, 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.4.134 to before 4.4.269; 4.9.104 to before 4.9.269; 4.14.45 to before 4.14.233; 3.16.57 to before 3.17 Fixed in 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 3.17 Patch available CNA
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.16 and later Fixed in 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 4.19.191, 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.4.134 to before 4.4.269; 4.9.104 to before 4.9.269; 4.14.45 to before 4.14.233; 4.16 to before 4.19.191; 4.20 to before 5.4.118; 5.5 to before 5.10.36; 5.11 to before 5.11.20; 5.12 to before 5.12.3 | Vulnerable | Linux |
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.4.134 to before 4.4.269; 4.9.104 to before 4.9.269; 4.14.45 to before 4.14.233; 4.16 to before 4.19.191; 4.20 to before 5.4.118; 5.5 to before 5.10.36; 5.11 to before 5.11.20; 5.12 to before 5.12.3 Vulnerable ·Linux
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 3.17
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 4.19.191, 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-46955
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-6mwq-mrw3-3m6c
References
Patch 9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1d7280f9ba1bfdbc3af5bdb82e51f014854f26f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23e17ec1a5eb53fe39cc34fa5592686d5acd0dac
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5a52fa8ad45b5a593ed416adf326538638454ff1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df9e900de24637be41879e2c50afb713ec4e8b2e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/490ad0a2390442d0a7b8c00972a83dbb09cab142
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a1478374b0bda89b4277a8afd39208271faad4be
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d841d3cf5297fde4ce6a41ff35451d0e82917f3e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3502b04e84ac5349be95fc033c17bd701d2787a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c0ea5930c1c211931819d83cfb157bff1539a4c
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2021-46955 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-46955 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-6mwq-mrw3-3m6c · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2021-46955 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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