In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vmxnet3: Fix malformed packet sizing in vmxnet3_process_xdp vmxnet3 driver's XDP handling is buggy for packet sizes using ring0 (that is, packet sizes between 128 - 3k bytes). We noticed MTU-related connectivity issues with Cilium's service load- balancing in case of vmxnet3 as NIC underneath. A simple curl to a HTTP backend service where the XDP LB was doing IPIP encap led to overly large packet sizes but only for *some* of the packets (e.g. HTTP GET request) while others (e.g. the prior TCP 3WHS) looked completely fine on the wire. In fact, the pcap recording on the backend node actually revealed that the node with the XDP LB was leaking uninitialized kernel data onto the wire for the affected packets, for example, while the packets should have been 152 bytes their actual size was 1482 bytes, so the remainder after 152 bytes was padded with whatever other data was in that page at the time (e.g. we saw user/payload data from prior processed packets). We only noticed this through an MTU issue, e.g. when the XDP LB node and the backend node both had the same MTU (e.g. 1500) then the curl request got dropped on the backend node's NIC given the packet was too large even though the IPIP-encapped packet normally would never even come close to the MTU limit. Lowering the MTU on the XDP LB (e.g. 1480) allowed to let the curl request succeed (which also indicates that the kernel ignored the padding, and thus the issue wasn't very user-visible). Commit e127ce7699c1 ("vmxnet3: Fix missing reserved tailroom") was too eager to also switch xdp_prepare_buff() from rcd->len to rbi->len. It really needs to stick to rcd->len which is the actual packet length from the descriptor. The latter we also feed into vmxnet3_process_xdp_small(), by the way, and it indicates the correct length needed to initialize the xdp->{data,data_end} parts. For e127ce7699c1 ("vmxnet3: Fix missing reserved tailroom") the relevant part was adapting xdp_init_buff() to address the warning given the xdp_data_hard_end() depends on xdp->frame_sz. With that fixed, traffic on the wire looks good again.
This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from linux organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
Reported in 2025, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.
2025-05-03T12:15:14.950
2025-11-10T17:36:25.963
Analyzed
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
CVSSv3.1: 5.5 (MEDIUM)
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | < 6.6.89 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | < 6.8 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | < 6.12.26 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | < 6.14.5 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | 6.15 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | 6.15 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | 6.15 | Yes |
| Operating System | linux | linux_kernel | 6.15 | Yes |
SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For linux's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.