In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Fix HV VHCA stats zero-sized buffer allocation mlx5e_hv_…
CVE-2026-72343 · published 15 Aug 2026
How serious is it
- Severity: high, CVSS score 8.4 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2026-72343?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: 5.17
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex that asks it to check whether you run this product.
- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/mlx5e: Fix HV VHCA stats zero-sized buffer allocation
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() is called from mlx5e_nic_enable(),
before mlx5e_open(). At that point priv->stats_nch is still zero,
because it is only ever incremented in mlx5e_channel_stats_alloc(),
which is reached only from mlx5e_open_channel().
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_size() therefore returns 0, and
kvzalloc(0, GFP_KERNEL) returns ZERO_SIZE_PTR ((void *)16) rather
than NULL. The "if (!buf)" guard does not catch this, and
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() completes "successfully" with
priv->stats_agent.buf set to ZERO_SIZE_PTR.
Once channels are opened (priv->stats_nch > 0) and the hypervisor
enables stats reporting, mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_work() recomputes
buf_len using the new non-zero stats_nch and calls
memset(buf, 0, buf_len) on ZERO_SIZE_PTR, faulting at address 0x10.
Allocate the buffer based on priv->max_nch, which is set in
mlx5e_priv_init() and is the upper bound on stats_nch:
- Add a separate helper mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_max_size() that
returns sizeof(per_ring_stats) * max(max_nch, stats_nch), and
use it for the kvzalloc() in mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create().
- Keep mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_buf_size() (which returns based on
stats_nch) for the worker's active payload size, so the wire
format (block->rings = stats_nch) and the amount of data filled
by mlx5e_hv_vhca_fill_stats() are unchanged.
The max(max_nch, stats_nch) guard handles the rare case where
mlx5e_attach_netdev() recomputes max_nch downward across a
detach/resume cycle while priv->stats_nch persists (mlx5e_detach_netdev
does not call mlx5e_priv_cleanup, so stats_nch is only reset when
the netdev is destroyed). Without the guard, the worker could compute
buf_len from stats_nch and overrun the smaller buffer allocated based
on the reduced max_nch.
Allocating a non-zero buffer also makes the kvzalloc() failure path in
mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_create() reachable for the first time: it returns
early without (re)creating the agent. Clear
priv->stats_agent.{agent,buf} in mlx5e_hv_vhca_stats_destroy() after
freeing them, so that if a later create() bails out on this path, a
subsequent teardown does not double-free the stale agent/buffer left
from a previous enable/disable cycle.
This mirrors the existing mlx5e pattern of preallocating arrays of
size max_nch (e.g. priv->channel_stats) and lazily populating
entries up to stats_nch on demand.
Check your whole app
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References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/22c1d5ecccf92c849bdca1556179aafc95794baf
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/25f6b929c7e379cbea7cb8caa67b49b2d1efae17
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/3b3a552cf88e10bb7bda88b29cf1fd8267043d50
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/420aabb32da4381d8d7cdcaa6a77fad9eaceb0a4
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/5b927dcec5f1087942bf123a82e64a3f66475f01
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/abc4c56427f144c96b2827a4db3b90eb5b7349a2
Merged from NVD. Last updated 23 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON