KernelScan.io

HIGH

enetc NTMP DMA UAF

CVE-2026-53300

CVSS 7.8 / 10.0 NVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

KernelScan AI5.5MEDIUM

01

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: enetc: fix NTMP DMA use-after-free issue The AI-generated review reported a potential DMA use-after-free issue [1]. If netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() times out and returns an error, the pending command is not explicitly aborted, while ntmp_free_data_mem() unconditionally frees the DMA buffer. If the buffer has already been reallocated elsewhere, this may lead to silent memory corruption. Because the hardware eventually processes the pending command and perform a DMA write of the response to the physical address of the freed buffer. To resolve this issue, this patch does the following modifications: 1. Convert cbdr->ring_lock from a spinlock to a mutex The lock was originally a spinlock in case NTMP operations might be invoked from atomic context. After downstream support for all NTMP tables, no such usage has materialized. A mutex lock is now required because the driver now needs to reclaim used BDs and release associated DMA memory within the lock's context, while dma_free_coherent() might sleep. 2. Introduce software command BD (struct netc_swcbd) The hardware write-back overwrites the addr and len fields of the BD, so the driver cannot rely on the hardware BD to free the associated DMA memory. The driver now maintains a software shadow BD storing the DMA buffer pointer, DMA address, and size. And netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() only reclaims older BDs when the number of used BDs reaches NETC_CBDR_CLEAN_WORK (16). The software BD enables correct DMA memory release. With this, struct ntmp_dma_buf and ntmp_free_data_mem() are no longer needed and are removed. 3. Require callers to hold ring_lock across netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() releases the ring_lock before the caller finishes consuming the response. At this point, if a concurrent thread submits a new command, it may trigger ntmp_clean_cbdr() and free the DMA buffer while it is still in use. Move ring_lock ownership to the caller to ensure the response buffer cannot be reclaimed prematurely. So the helpers ntmp_select_and_lock_cbdr() and ntmp_unlock_cbdr() are added. These changes eliminate the DMA use-after-free condition and ensure safe and consistent BD reclamation and DMA buffer lifecycle management.

02

Engine v0.3.0

Risk summary

A DMA use-after-free vulnerability in the NXP ENETC NTMP driver allows a timed-out hardware command to write back to a DMA buffer that has already been freed and potentially reallocated. This causes silent memory corruption in kernel memory. Exploitation requires privileged local access to configure the ENETC network hardware, limiting the attack surface to systems running NXP i.MX95 or similar NETC-capable hardware.

Affecteddrivers/net/ethernet/freescale/enetc/ntmp.c (NXP ENETC NTMP network driver)

Vulnerability analysis

The vulnerability is a DMA use-after-free in the NTMP (NETC Table Management Protocol) command BD ring implementation. When netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() times out waiting for hardware completion, it returns an error but does not abort the pending hardware command. The caller then unconditionally frees the DMA buffer via ntmp_free_data_mem(). If that buffer is subsequently reallocated for another purpose, the hardware eventually completes the original command and performs a DMA write-back to the now-reused physical address, causing silent memory corruption. A secondary race condition exists: netc_xmit_ntmp_cmd() released the ring_lock before the caller finished consuming the response, allowing a concurrent thread to trigger ntmp_clean_cbdr() and free the DMA buffer while still in use. The fix converts the spinlock to a mutex (enabling sleep in dma_free_coherent()), introduces a software shadow BD (struct netc_swcbd) to track DMA buffer metadata independently of hardware write-back, defers DMA buffer freeing to ntmp_clean_cbdr() under the lock, and moves ring_lock ownership to callers so the response buffer cannot be reclaimed prematurely. This is only reachable by a privileged process managing the ENETC hardware on NXP NETC-capable platforms.

03

BranchFixed inPatch commit
6.186.18.3337c8933064be
7.07.0.10655d9ce9b1d3
mainline7.13cade698881e