DMA length error in Linux kernel bnxt_en driver for small packets
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 6 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
The Linux kernel bnxt_en driver for NetXtreme-E NICs, from 4.4 before the fixed releases, maps only the unpadded length of small packets for DMA. The hardware is told to read the padded length, so the DMA read can run past the mapped buffer into an unmapped page. A remote unauthenticated attacker can cause a high availability impact.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-30
Description from the CNA
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bnxt_en: fix DMA mapping length for padded small packets Stefan Fleischmann reported Intel IOMMU DMA Read faults on BCM57412 NetXtreme-E NICs when transmitting packets on VLAN/macvlan interfaces: DMAR: [DMA Read NO_PASID] Request device [18:00.0] fault addr 0xfc499000 [fault reason 0x06] PTE Read access is not set bnxt_en 0000:18:00.0 eno1np0: Abandoning msg {0xb4 0x41a} len: 0 due to firmware status: 0x2000001 ... NETDEV WATCHDOG: eno1np0 (bnxt_en): transmit queue 0 timed out The fault address (0xfc499000) is on an exact 4KB page boundary, pointing to a DMA read buffer overrun. In bnxt_start_xmit(), packets smaller than BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE (52 bytes), such as 42-byte untagged ARP frames, are padded: if (length < BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE) { pad = BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE - length; if (skb_pad(skb, pad)) goto tx_kick_pending; length = BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE; } mapping = dma_map_single(&pdev->dev, skb->data, len, DMA_TO_DEVICE); ... dma_unmap_len_set(tx_buf, len, len); However, 'len' was initialized earlier to skb_headlen(skb) (e.g. 42 bytes) and is left unadjusted after padding. Consequently, dma_map_single() and dma_unmap_len_set() map and track only 42 bytes. Later, the hardware TX buffer descriptor is programmed with the padded length: txbd->tx_bd_len_flags_type = cpu_to_le32(((len + pad) << TX_BD_LEN_SHIFT) | flags | TX_BD_FLAGS_PACKET_END); The NIC DMA engine is thus instructed to read 52 bytes from a region where only 42 bytes were DMA-mapped. If skb->data ends near the boundary of a 4KB page (within 'pad' bytes of the next page), the hardware DMA read overruns into the unmapped adjacent page, triggering an IOMMU fault. This issue was exposed after commit 447cbe95ebb9 ("vlan: fix skb_under_panic and races when toggling HW VLAN offload") because reserving extra VLAN headroom rounded LL_RESERVED_SPACE from 48 up to 64 bytes, shifting skb->data offsets and potentially causing small frames to land right against page boundaries. Fix this by using skb_put_padto(skb, BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE) in bnxt_start_xmit(), before skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags is sampled, because padding might linearize the skb. This ensures skb->len and skb_headlen(skb) reflect the padded size so that dma_map_single() maps the full buffer and the descriptor length is consistent. This also removes the temporary 'pad' variable and masking logic. The padding is done after the SW USO branch, otherwise bnxt_sw_udp_gso_xmit() would account the padding as UDP payload and send it in extra segments. Note that SW USO segments are still not padded: with IPv4, a segment carrying less than 10 bytes of UDP payload (small gso_size, or a short last segment) is sent as a frame shorter than BNXT_MIN_PKT_SIZE. This is a separate issue, left for a followup patch.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Linux kernel 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.57, 7.2.11 and 7.3 contain the fix. Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 and 5 as affected with plan none_available.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-30
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.273, 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.113, 6.18.57, 7.2.11, 7.3
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 7 | 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 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-23 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-99081
- 2026-10-23 Alias added: GHSA-9368-hxmw-4c4j
- 2026-10-24 CVSS score added · CNA
- 2026-10-24 Priority changed: LOW → MEDIUM
- 2026-10-24 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
- 2026-10-26 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-26 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/Linux@0f347e00d060dc0bf3b2d0ee041206e54848c233, Linux/Linux@3a5d8465e73aff3c7d1ec38261dcaaa317367467, Linux/[email protected] +3 · CNA
- 2026-10-30 3 new references · CNA
- 2026-10-30 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f347e00d060dc0bf3b2d0ee041206e54848c233
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3fd0177cf18a6ac98d41af80b4040010ea40f4d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a5d8465e73aff3c7d1ec38261dcaaa317367467
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf8530a25ae92c4493e2f22981ecb46f0b66f4c8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2956aca14dd2977cd08bd2ccafae3beb8b84b268
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fbd977e513971ccb4f0762a7f59eac500e474f89
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5213f65a9667d3dd85db2e6df8f2e0516290db34
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a51d233ccd4889aadb71dace863525cc2b00271e
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Sources
- CVE-2026-99081 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-99081 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9368-hxmw-4c4j · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-99081 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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