CVE-2024-43878

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFRM network security hardware management in which a specific configuration could cause an improper memory access, resulting in a potential denial of service.

A moderate-impact flaw was found in the Linux kernel's XFRM (IPsec) input processing in net/xfrm/xfrm_input.c. When XFRM input states are misconfigured so that packet processing takes the input state slow path, the XFRM interface receive callback (xfrmi_rcv_cb) performs an improper read of freed memory, reported by KASAN as a wild memory access, which can cause a fatal exception in interrupt context and a kernel panic, resulting in a denial of service. Red Hat rates this flaw Moderate severity (CVSS 5.5, CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H): triggering it requires local privileges to set up the misconfigured XFRM state, and the impact is limited to availability. The NIST (7.1) and CVE.org (8.1) scores are higher because they claim confidentiality impact and, in the CVE.org record, a network attack vector, whereas Red Hat's scoring reflects a local, privilege-dependent vector with availability-only impact. In the current assessment, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (kernel and kernel-rt) and Hosted OpenShift cluster kernel streams are listed as not affected; within Red Hat's product scope, only the Fedora community kernel is affected, and a fix for Fedora is being pursued through the delegated community update process.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.