CVE-2026-68129 (GCVE-0-2026-68129)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-10 11:58 – Updated: 2026-08-19 16:29
VLAI
Title
gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure When the system is under extreme memory pressure, page allocations can fail during the Rx buffer refill loop. If the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low threshold and the refill loop exits due to allocation failures, the queue can stall: 1. The device drops incoming packets because there are no descriptors. 2. Since no packets are processed, no Rx completions are generated. 3. Because no completions occur, NAPI is never scheduled, preventing the refill loop from running again even after memory is freed. This results in a permanent queue stall. Resolve this by introducing a starvation recovery timer for each Rx queue. If the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low threshold, start a timer to periodically reschedule NAPI. Once NAPI runs and successfully refills the queue above the threshold, the timer is not rescheduled. The threshold is set to 32 because a single maximum-sized Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC) packet can consume up to 19 descriptors in the Rx path. Lower thresholds (such as 8 or 16) would be insufficient to process a complete maximum-sized RSC packet, risking packet drops or unexpected hardware behavior under memory pressure. Setting the threshold to 32 guarantees a safe margin to handle at least one full RSC packet.
Severity
7.5 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
Linux Linux Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 9db46e19e5d6bdcd4bf811284a5b0df1b984ef80 (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 42d525e751c61b876b2b0ae4e71ba7a8ab0c2777 (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 299d5728a7312fdd02059b074aebbe4ebbd391e4 (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 0c317349b4baa5038d1fc373bf46d5a2419d1710 (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 91e0249f3ef62b75fe8c9c9372eaba32876e4b3a (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < 689b9f588d2d7323dc66293fe594a68d030f400f (git)
Affected: 9b8dd5e5ea48bbb7532d20c4093a79d8283e4029 , < b65352a1bac64442ad95e64f385b40ccb9f1b0db (git)
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Linux Linux Affected: 5.14
Unaffected: 0 , < 5.14 (semver)
Unaffected: 5.15.216 , ≤ 5.15.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.1.183 , ≤ 6.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.6.151 , ≤ 6.6.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.12.101 , ≤ 6.12.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.18.42 , ≤ 6.18.* (semver)
Unaffected: 7.1.6 , ≤ 7.1.* (semver)
Unaffected: 7.2 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
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          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ngve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure\n\nWhen the system is under extreme memory pressure, page allocations can\nfail during the Rx buffer refill loop. If the number of buffers posted\nto hardware falls below a critical low threshold and the refill loop\nexits due to allocation failures, the queue can stall:\n\n1. The device drops incoming packets because there are no descriptors.\n2. Since no packets are processed, no Rx completions are generated.\n3. Because no completions occur, NAPI is never scheduled, preventing\n   the refill loop from running again even after memory is freed.\n\nThis results in a permanent queue stall.\n\nResolve this by introducing a starvation recovery timer for each Rx queue.\nIf the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low\nthreshold, start a timer to periodically reschedule NAPI. Once NAPI runs\nand successfully refills the queue above the threshold, the timer is\nnot rescheduled.\n\nThe threshold is set to 32 because a single maximum-sized Receive Segment\nCoalescing (RSC) packet can consume up to 19 descriptors in the Rx path.\nLower thresholds (such as 8 or 16) would be insufficient to process a\ncomplete maximum-sized RSC packet, risking packet drops or unexpected\nhardware behavior under memory pressure. Setting the threshold to 32\nguarantees a safe margin to handle at least one full RSC packet."
        }
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            "version": "3.1"
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              "value": "AV:N - The flaw is in the gVNIC receive/refill path driven by incoming network traffic on internet-facing Google Cloud VMs; remote packets trigger NAPI polling that reaches gve_rx_post_buffers_dqo() where the stall occurs.\nAC:L - An attacker can reliably drive the vulnerable refill loop by sending high-volume traffic to exhaust RX page-pool buffers and pressure GFP_ATOMIC allocations; no race or rare layout is required beyond sustained network load.\nPR:N - Exploitation requires only the ability to send packets to the VM\u0027s gVNIC interface; no local account, capabilities, or authentication is needed on internet-reachable cloud instances.\nUI:N - No victim interaction is required; the permanent RX queue stall is triggered automatically during kernel packet receive processing under memory pressure.\nS:U - Impact is confined to the affected guest\u0027s network stack and does not cross VM, container, or IOMMU security boundaries; it is a guest-local denial of service, not an escape.\nC:N - This is a resource-management logic bug causing queue starvation with no out-of-bounds access, use-after-free, or information disclosure; no kernel or user memory is read by the attacker.\nI:N - The bug causes a permanent receive-queue stall without modifying kernel data structures, user data, or enabling code execution; there is no integrity impact beyond loss of connectivity.\nA:H - A failed refill below the 32-descriptor threshold permanently stalls the RX queue because no completions schedule NAPI again, causing lasting loss of network receive capability until reboot."
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        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
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      "title": "gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure",
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    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-68129",
    "datePublished": "2026-08-10T11:58:51.406Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-07-30T09:28:09.370Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-19T16:29:44.226Z",
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Because no completions occur, NAPI is never scheduled, preventing\\n   the refill loop from running again even after memory is freed.\\n\\nThis results in a permanent queue stall.\\n\\nResolve this by introducing a starvation recovery timer for each Rx queue.\\nIf the number of buffers posted to hardware falls below a critical low\\nthreshold, start a timer to periodically reschedule NAPI. Once NAPI runs\\nand successfully refills the queue above the threshold, the timer is\\nnot rescheduled.\\n\\nThe threshold is set to 32 because a single maximum-sized Receive Segment\\nCoalescing (RSC) packet can consume up to 19 descriptors in the Rx path.\\nLower thresholds (such as 8 or 16) would be insufficient to process a\\ncomplete maximum-sized RSC packet, risking packet drops or unexpected\\nhardware behavior under memory pressure. 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    "redhat_vex": {
      "aggregate_severity": "Moderate",
      "current_release_date": "2026-08-13T23:16:56+00:00",
      "cve": "CVE-2026-68129",
      "id": "CVE-2026-68129",
      "initial_release_date": "2026-08-10T00:00:00+00:00",
      "product_status:known_affected": "232",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "44",
      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
      "status": "final",
      "title": "kernel: gve: fix Rx queue stall on alloc failure",
      "url": "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-68129.json",
      "version": "3"
    },
    "suse_vex": {
      "aggregate_severity": "moderate",
      "current_release_date": "2026-08-18T16:56:30Z",
      "cve": "CVE-2026-68129",
      "id": "CVE-2026-68129",
      "initial_release_date": "2026-08-18T16:56:30Z",
      "product_status:known_affected": "82",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "214",
      "source": "SUSE CSAF VEX",
      "status": "interim",
      "title": "SUSE CVE CVE-2026-68129",
      "url": "https://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/security/csaf-vex/cve-2026-68129.json",
      "version": "2"
    }
  }
}



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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

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  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
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  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.