CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedThe vulnerability in the Linux kernel's batman-adv module allows an attacker to exploit an unbounded unacked_list, potentially leading to out-of-memory conditions or excessive CPU usage due to inefficient list management. This can occur when the attacker sends messages with manipulated sequence numbers, causing the receiver to allocate an increasing number of list entries. Organizations using Linux systems with the batman-adv module should prioritize patching this vulnerability to mitigate risks associated with resource exhaustion and performance degradation.
Original NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: batman-adv: tp_meter: restrict number of unacked list entries When the unacked_list is unbound, an attacker could send messages with small lengths and appropriated seqno + gaps to force the receiver to allocate more and more unacked_list entries. And the end either causing an out-of-memory situation or increase the management overhead for the (large) list that significant portions of CPU cycles are wasted in searching through the list. When limiting the list to a specific number, it is important to still correctly add a new entry to the list. But if the list became larger than the limit, the last entry of the list (with the highest seqno) must be dropped to still allow the earlier seqnos to finish and therefore to continue the process. Otherwise, the process might get stuck with too high seqnos which are not handled by batadv_tp_ack_unordered().