HIGH
iavf Ethtool Stats OOB
CVE-2026-31505
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
KernelScan AI7.8HIGH
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iavf: fix out-of-bounds writes in iavf_get_ethtool_stats() iavf incorrectly uses real_num_tx_queues for ETH_SS_STATS. Since the value could change in runtime, we should use num_tx_queues instead. Moreover iavf_get_ethtool_stats() uses num_active_queues while iavf_get_sset_count() and iavf_get_stat_strings() use real_num_tx_queues, which triggers out-of-bounds writes when we do "ethtool -L" and "ethtool -S" simultaneously [1]. For example when we change channels from 1 to 8, Thread 3 could be scheduled before Thread 2, and out-of-bounds writes could be triggered in Thread 3: Thread 1 (ethtool -L) Thread 2 (work) Thread 3 (ethtool -S) iavf_set_channels() ... iavf_alloc_queues() -> num_active_queues = 8 iavf_schedule_finish_config() iavf_get_sset_count() real_num_tx_queues: 1 -> buffer for 1 queue iavf_get_ethtool_stats() num_active_queues: 8 -> out-of-bounds! iavf_finish_config() -> real_num_tx_queues = 8 Use immutable num_tx_queues in all related functions to avoid the issue. [1] BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in iavf_add_one_ethtool_stat+0x200/0x270 Write of size 8 at addr ffffc900031c9080 by task ethtool/5800 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5800 Comm: ethtool Not tainted 6.19.0-enjuk-08403-g8137e3db7f1c #241 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xb0 print_report+0x170/0x4f3 kasan_report+0xe1/0x180 iavf_add_one_ethtool_stat+0x200/0x270 iavf_get_ethtool_stats+0x14c/0x2e0 __dev_ethtool+0x3d0c/0x5830 dev_ethtool+0x12d/0x270 dev_ioctl+0x53c/0xe30 sock_do_ioctl+0x1a9/0x270 sock_ioctl+0x3d4/0x5e0 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x137/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x690 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f7da0e6e36d ... </TASK> The buggy address belongs to a 1-page vmalloc region starting at 0xffffc900031c9000 allocated at __dev_ethtool+0x3cc9/0x5830 The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page: refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0xffff88813a013de0 pfn:0x13a013 flags: 0x200000000000000(node=0|zone=2) raw: 0200000000000000 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 0000000000000000 raw: ffff88813a013de0 0000000000000000 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffffc900031c8f80: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ffffc900031c9000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >ffffc900031c9080: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ^ ffffc900031c9100: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ffffc900031c9180: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
An attacker with root privileges can trigger out-of-bounds memory writes in kernel space by running ethtool commands concurrently on Intel iavf network interfaces. This could lead to kernel memory corruption, system crashes, or potential privilege escalation. The vulnerability affects systems using Intel Virtual Function network adapters and requires administrative access to exploit.
Vulnerability analysis
Root Cause: The iavf driver has inconsistent queue count usage across ethtool statistics functions. iavf_get_sset_count() and iavf_get_stat_strings() use real_num_tx_queues to determine buffer size, while iavf_get_ethtool_stats() uses num_active_queues to iterate and write statistics. When ethtool channel configuration changes occur concurrently with statistics retrieval, num_active_queues can be larger than real_num_tx_queues, causing writes beyond the allocated buffer boundary.
Attack Surface: Local attack surface requiring root privileges to execute ethtool commands. The vulnerability is triggered by concurrent execution of 'ethtool -L' (channel configuration) and 'ethtool -S' (statistics retrieval) commands, creating a race condition window where queue counts become inconsistent.
Fix Mechanism: The patch standardizes all three functions to use the immutable num_tx_queues field instead of the runtime-variable real_num_tx_queues and num_active_queues. This ensures consistent buffer allocation and iteration bounds. Additionally, iavf_get_ethtool_stats() is modified to handle cases where i >= num_active_queues by passing NULL pointers to iavf_add_queue_stats(), which safely reports zero statistics for inactive queues.
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|
| 6.12 | 6.12.80 | 1f931dee5b72 |
| 6.18 | 6.18.21 | bb85741d2dc2 |
| 6.19 | 6.19.11 | fdf902bf86a8 |
| mainline | 7.0 | fecacfc95f19 |