Description
A memory leak in the sdma_init() function in drivers/infiniband/hw/hfi1/sdma.c in the Linux kernel before 5.3.9 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by triggering rhashtable_init() failures, aka CID-34b3be18a04e. NOTE: This has been disputed as not a vulnerability because "rhashtable_init() can only fail if it is passed invalid values in the second parameter's struct, but when invoked from sdma_init() that is a pointer to a static const struct, so an attacker could only trigger failure if they could corrupt kernel memory (in which case a small memory leak is not a significant problem).
References (7)
Core 7
Core References
Release Notes, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.3.9
Patch, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/34b3be18a04ecdc610aae4c48e5d1b799d8689f6
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory
x_refsource_ubuntu
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4208-1/
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory
x_refsource_ubuntu
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4210-1/
Third Party Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191205-0001/
Mailing List, Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory
x_refsource_suse
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-12/msg00029.html
Third Party Advisory vendor-advisory
x_refsource_ubuntu
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4226-1/
Scores
CVSS v3
4.7
EPSS
0.0004
EPSS Percentile
12.5%
Attack Vector
LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical Impact
partial
Details
CWE
CWE-401
Status
published
Products (6)
canonical/ubuntu_linux
16.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux
18.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux
19.04
canonical/ubuntu_linux
19.10
linux/linux_kernel
< 5.3.9
opensuse/leap
15.1
Published
Nov 18, 2019
Tracked Since
Feb 18, 2026