published December 4, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: openvswitch: remove never-working support for setting nsh fields
The validation of the set(nsh(...)) action is completely wrong.
It runs through the nsh_key_put_from_nlattr() function that is the
same function that validates NSH keys for the flow match and the
push_nsh() action. However, the set(nsh(...)) has a very different
memory layout. Nested attributes in there are doubled in size in
case of the masked set(). That makes proper validation impossible.
There is also confusion in the code between the 'masked' flag, that
says that the nested attributes are doubled in size containing both
the value and the mask, and the 'is_mask' that says that the value
we're parsing is the mask. This is causing kernel crash on trying to
write into mask part of the match with SW_FLOW_KEY_PUT() during
validation, while validate_nsh() doesn't allocate any memory for it:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 1c2383067 P4D 1c2383067 PUD 20b703067 PMD 0
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
CPU: 8 UID: 0 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.17.0-rc4+ #107 PREEMPT(voluntary)
RIP: 0010:nsh_key_put_from_nlattr+0x19d/0x610 [openvswitch]
Call Trace:
<TASK>
validate_nsh+0x60/0x90 [openvswitch]
validate_set.constprop.0+0x270/0x3c0 [openvswitch]
__ovs_nla_copy_actions+0x477/0x860 [openvswitch]
ovs_nla_copy_actions+0x8d/0x100 [openvswitch]
ovs_packet_cmd_execute+0x1cc/0x310 [openvswitch]
genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0xdb/0x130
genl_family_rcv_msg+0x14b/0x220
genl_rcv_msg+0x47/0xa0
netlink_rcv_skb+0x53/0x100
genl_rcv+0x24/0x40
netlink_unicast+0x280/0x3b0
netlink_sendmsg+0x1f7/0x430
____sys_sendmsg+0x36b/0x3a0
___sys_sendmsg+0x87/0xd0
__sys_sendmsg+0x6d/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x7b/0x2c0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
The third issue with this process is that while trying to convert
the non-masked set into masked one, validate_set() copies and doubles
the size of the OVS_KEY_ATTR_NSH as if it didn't have any nested
attributes. It should be copying each nested attribute and doubling
them in size independently. And the process must be properly reversed
during the conversion back from masked to a non-masked variant during
the flow dump.
In the end, the only two outcomes of trying to use this action are
either validation failure or a kernel crash. And if somehow someone
manages to install a flow with such an action, it will most definitely
not do what it is supposed to, since all the keys and the masks are
mixed up.
Fixing all the issues is a complex task as it requires re-writing
most of the validation code.
Given that and the fact that this functionality never worked since
introduction, let's just remove it altogether. It's better to
re-introduce it later with a proper implementation instead of trying
to fix it in stable releases.