NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-core package, versions <0:5.14.0-284.80.1.el9_2

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-core package and not the kernel-core package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/mlx5e: Fix netif state handling

mlx5e_suspend cleans resources only if netif_device_present() returns true. However, mlx5e_resume changes the state of netif, via mlx5e_nic_enable, only if reg_state == NETREG_REGISTERED. In the below case, the above leads to NULL-ptr Oops[1] and memory leaks:

mlx5e_probe _mlx5e_resume mlx5e_attach_netdev mlx5e_nic_enable <-- netdev not reg, not calling netif_device_attach() register_netdev <-- failed for some reason. ERROR_FLOW: _mlx5e_suspend <-- netif_device_present return false, resources aren't freed :(

Hence, clean resources in this case as well.

[1] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0010 [#1] SMP CPU: 2 PID: 9345 Comm: test-ovs-ct-gen Not tainted 6.5.0_for_upstream_min_debug_2023_09_05_16_01 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:0x0 Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at0xffffffffffffffd6. RSP: 0018:ffff888178aaf758 EFLAGS: 00010246 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die+0x20/0x60 ? page_fault_oops+0x14c/0x3c0 ? exc_page_fault+0x75/0x140 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 notifier_call_chain+0x35/0xb0 blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x3d/0x60 mlx5_blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x22/0x30 [mlx5_core] mlx5_core_uplink_netdev_event_replay+0x3e/0x60 [mlx5_core] mlx5_mdev_netdev_track+0x53/0x60 [mlx5_ib] mlx5_ib_roce_init+0xc3/0x340 [mlx5_ib] __mlx5_ib_add+0x34/0xd0 [mlx5_ib] mlx5r_probe+0xe1/0x210 [mlx5_ib] ? auxiliary_match_id+0x6a/0x90 auxiliary_bus_probe+0x38/0x80 ? driver_sysfs_add+0x51/0x80 really_probe+0xc9/0x3e0 ? driver_probe_device+0x90/0x90 __driver_probe_device+0x80/0x160 driver_probe_device+0x1e/0x90 __device_attach_driver+0x7d/0x100 bus_for_each_drv+0x80/0xd0 __device_attach+0xbc/0x1f0 bus_probe_device+0x86/0xa0 device_add+0x637/0x840 __auxiliary_device_add+0x3b/0xa0 add_adev+0xc9/0x140 [mlx5_core] mlx5_rescan_drivers_locked+0x22a/0x310 [mlx5_core] mlx5_register_device+0x53/0xa0 [mlx5_core] mlx5_init_one_devl_locked+0x5c4/0x9c0 [mlx5_core] mlx5_init_one+0x3b/0x60 [mlx5_core] probe_one+0x44c/0x730 [mlx5_core] local_pci_probe+0x3e/0x90 pci_device_probe+0xbf/0x210 ? kernfs_create_link+0x5d/0xa0 ? sysfs_do_create_link_sd+0x60/0xc0 really_probe+0xc9/0x3e0 ? driver_probe_device+0x90/0x90 __driver_probe_device+0x80/0x160 driver_probe_device+0x1e/0x90 __device_attach_driver+0x7d/0x100 bus_for_each_drv+0x80/0xd0 __device_attach+0xbc/0x1f0 pci_bus_add_device+0x54/0x80 pci_iov_add_virtfn+0x2e6/0x320 sriov_enable+0x208/0x420 mlx5_core_sriov_configure+0x9e/0x200 [mlx5_core] sriov_numvfs_store+0xae/0x1a0 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x10c/0x1a0 vfs_write+0x291/0x3c0 ksys_write+0x5f/0xe0 do_syscall_64+0x3d/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0 CR2: 0000000000000000 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-38608
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d5918477f94e4c2f064567875c475468e264644
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f7e6cfb864a53af71c5cc904f1cc22215d68f5c6