HIGH
ibmveth GSO Freeze
CVE-2026-46273
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
KernelScan AI7.5HIGH
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ibmveth: Disable GSO for packets with small MSS Some physical adapters on Power systems do not support segmentation offload when the MSS is less than 224 bytes. Attempting to send such packets causes the adapter to freeze, stopping all traffic until manually reset. Implement ndo_features_check to disable GSO for packets with small MSS values. The network stack will perform software segmentation instead. The 224-byte minimum matches ibmvnic commit <f10b09ef687f> ("ibmvnic: Enforce stronger sanity checks on GSO packets") which uses the same physical adapters in SEA configurations. The issue occurs specifically when the hardware attempts to perform segmentation (gso_segs > 1) with a small MSS. Single-segment GSO packets (gso_segs == 1) do not trigger the problematic LSO code path and are transmitted normally without segmentation. Add an ndo_features_check callback to disable GSO when MSS < 224 bytes. Also call vlan_features_check() to ensure proper handling of VLAN packets, particularly QinQ (802.1ad) configurations where the hardware parser may not support certain offload features. Validated using iptables to force small MSS values. Without the fix, the adapter freezes. With the fix, packets are segmented in software and transmission succeeds. Comprehensive regression testing completedd (MSS tests, performance, stability).
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
IBM Power systems with virtual Ethernet adapters can experience complete network adapter freeze when processing TCP packets with small MSS values during GSO operations. The adapter stops all traffic until manually reset, causing denial of service for network connectivity. Any remote attacker able to send TCP traffic to the system can trigger this condition.
Vulnerability analysis
The vulnerability occurs when the ibmveth driver attempts hardware segmentation offload (GSO) on packets with MSS less than 224 bytes. The physical adapters on Power systems cannot handle this condition and freeze, requiring manual reset. The root cause is missing validation in the original TSO implementation that allowed small MSS packets to reach the hardware LSO path. The fix adds an ndo_features_check callback that disables GSO for packets with MSS < 224 bytes, forcing software segmentation instead. This is a remote denial of service affecting network availability on IBM Power virtualized environments. The trigger is not local; any TCP peer can force a small MSS (e.g., via MSS clamping in iptables or simply by being on the network path), making the attack vector Network.
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|
| 5.10 | 5.10.258 | 86fc64584811 |
| 5.15 | 5.15.209 | 9a5e984d7af9 |
| 6.1 | 6.1.175 | 1cdf5dbcec98 |
| 6.12 | 6.12.88 | db8012c631cb |
| 6.18 | 6.18.30 | c1f261863e65 |
| 6.6 | 6.6.140 | 82bc89fbb82d |
| 7.0 | 7.0.7 | 3af24f0c4c31 |
| mainline | 7.1-rc2 | cc427d24ac64 |