CVE-2024-11614 – This CVE-2024-11614 is an out-of-bounds read vu... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2024-11614?

CVE-2024-11614 has a CVSS score of 7.4 (HIGH). This CVE-2024-11614 is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in DPDK's Vhost library checksum offload feature. It allows a malicious virtual machine using a virtio driver to crash the hypervisor's vSwitch by sending specially crafted packets with invalid checksum offsets. This affects systems using DPDK with vhost-user networking and untrusted or compromised guest VMs.

📋 TL;DR

This CVE-2024-11614 is an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in DPDK's Vhost library checksum offload feature. It allows a malicious virtual machine using a virtio driver to crash the hypervisor's vSwitch by sending specially crafted packets with invalid checksum offsets. This affects systems using DPDK with vhost-user networking and untrusted or compromised guest VMs.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit)

Versions: Specific affected versions not specified in references, but Red Hat advisories indicate multiple DPDK versions are affected

Operating Systems: Linux distributions using DPDK (particularly Red Hat Enterprise Linux variants)

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Only affects systems using DPDK with vhost-user networking and checksum offload feature enabled. Requires a malicious or compromised guest VM with virtio driver access.

⚠️ Manual Verification Required

This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.

Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).

🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.

Recommended Actions:

Review the CVE details at NVD
Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Complete denial of service of the hypervisor's virtual switch, disrupting network connectivity for all VMs on the affected host.

🟠

Likely Case

Targeted crash of the vhost-user process, causing network disruption for affected VMs until service is restored.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact if proper network segmentation and VM isolation are implemented, limiting blast radius.

🌐 Internet-Facing: LOW - This vulnerability requires access to a malicious or compromised VM, not direct internet exposure.

🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Risk exists in virtualized environments where untrusted VMs could be deployed or existing VMs could be compromised.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No

Weaponized: UNKNOWN

Unauthenticated Exploit: ✅ No

Complexity: MEDIUM

Exploitation requires control of a guest VM to forge malicious Virtio descriptors. The vulnerability is in the hypervisor-side vhost library processing.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Refer to Red Hat advisories RHSA-2025:0208 through RHSA-2025:0220 for specific patched versions

Vendor Advisory: https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:0208

Restart Required: Yes

Instructions:

1. Identify affected DPDK packages on your system. 2. Apply relevant Red Hat security updates for your distribution. 3. Restart affected services or reboot the host to load patched libraries.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable checksum offload

linux

Disable Tx checksum offload feature in vhost-user configuration to prevent exploitation

# Configure DPDK to disable checksum offload in vhost settings
# Exact commands depend on your DPDK deployment configuration

Isolate untrusted VMs

all

Segment network and restrict VM-to-hypervisor communication for untrusted workloads

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Implement strict VM isolation and network segmentation to limit potential attack surface
Monitor for abnormal vhost process crashes and implement rapid response procedures

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check DPDK version and verify if vhost-user with checksum offload is enabled in your configuration

Check Version:

rpm -qa | grep dpdk  # For RHEL-based systems

Verify Fix Applied:

Verify DPDK packages have been updated to versions specified in Red Hat advisories and test with legitimate checksum offload requests

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Unexpected crashes or restarts of vhost-user processes
Kernel logs showing memory access violations in DPDK components

Network Indicators:

Sudden loss of network connectivity for VMs on affected hosts
Abnormal packet patterns from VMs attempting checksum offload

SIEM Query:

Process crashes with 'dpdk' or 'vhost' in process name AND source from VM network interfaces

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2024-11614

CVSS v3 Score: 7.4 (HIGH)

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWE: CWE-125

Published: December 18, 2024

Last Updated: April 17, 2025

🔗 References

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