In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
virtio_net: Do not send RSS key if it is not supported
There is a bug when setting the RSS options in virtio_net that can break
the whole machine, getting the kernel into an infinite loop.
Running the following command in any QEMU virtual machine with virtionet
will reproduce this problem:
# ethtool -X eth0 hfunc toeplitz
This is how the problem happens:
ethtool_set_rxfh() calls virtnet_set_rxfh()
virtnet_set_rxfh() calls virtnet_commit_rss_command()
virtnet_commit_rss_command() populates 4 entries for the rss
scatter-gather
Since the command above does not have a key, then the last
scatter-gatter entry will be zeroed, since rss_key_size == 0.
sg_buf_size = vi->rss_key_size;
This buffer is passed to qemu, but qemu is not happy with a buffer
with zero length, and do the following in virtqueue_map_desc() (QEMU
function):
if (!sz) {
virtio_error(vdev, “virtio: zero sized buffers are not allowed”);
virtio_error() (also QEMU function) set the device as broken
vdev->broken = true;
Qemu bails out, and do not repond this crazy kernel.
The kernel is waiting for the response to come back (function
virtnet_send_command())
The kernel is waiting doing the following :
while (!virtqueue_get_buf(vi->cvq, &tmp) &&
!virtqueue_is_broken(vi->cvq))
cpu_relax();
None of the following functions above is true, thus, the kernel
loops here forever. Keeping in mind that virtqueue_is_broken() does
not look at the qemu vdev->broken
, so, it never realizes that the
vitio is broken at QEMU side.
Fix it by not sending RSS commands if the feature is not available in
the device.