gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure When the system is under extreme memory pressure, page allocations can fail during the Rx buffer refill loop. If the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low threshold and the refill loop exits due to allocation failures, the queue can stall: 1. The device drops incoming packets because there are no descriptors. 2. Since no packets are processed, no Rx completions are generated. 3. Because no completions occur, NAPI is never scheduled, preventing the refill loop from running again even after memory is freed. This results in a permanent queue stall. Resolve this by introducing a starvation recovery timer for each Rx queue. If the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low threshold, start a timer to periodically reschedule NAPI. Once NAPI runs and successfully refills the queue above the threshold, the timer is not rescheduled. The threshold is set to 32 because a single maximum-sized Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC) packet can consume up to 19 descriptors in the Rx path. Lower thresholds (such as 8 or 16) would be insufficient to process a complete maximum-sized RSC packet, risking packet drops or unexpected hardware behavior under memory pressure. Setting the threshold to 32 guarantees a safe margin to handle at least one full RSC packet.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.15.216, 6.1.183, 6.6.151, 6.12.101, 6.18.42, 7.1.6, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-68129
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-wqfg-pmq9-xr26
- 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-10-20 Weakness changed · CISA ADP
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9db46e19e5d6bdcd4bf811284a5b0df1b984ef80
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/42d525e751c61b876b2b0ae4e71ba7a8ab0c2777
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/299d5728a7312fdd02059b074aebbe4ebbd391e4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c317349b4baa5038d1fc373bf46d5a2419d1710
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/91e0249f3ef62b75fe8c9c9372eaba32876e4b3a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/689b9f588d2d7323dc66293fe594a68d030f400f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b65352a1bac64442ad95e64f385b40ccb9f1b0db
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Sources
- CVE-2026-68129 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-68129 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-wqfg-pmq9-xr26 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-68129 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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