Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-35981)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-35981). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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. Ke…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-35981 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2024-35981" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2024-35981 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7
```
ステージング環境で 6.1.90, 6.6.29, 6.8.7 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.18.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.90"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.29"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.8.7"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2024-35981 linux Fixed in: 6.1.90-1