CVE-2024-35858

What it actually does

The flaw causes a memory leak of DMA-mapped buffers in the Broadcom ASP network driver when flushing TX rings during interface shutdown, and can corrupt TX control blocks.

Why it matters to the business

Leads to gradual memory exhaustion on systems using the affected driver, potentially causing instability or crashes during network interface management or power saving operations. Low exploitation likelihood but affects Linux kernel stability.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with local access could repeatedly bring the network interface down to trigger the leak and corruption, leading to denial of service via memory exhaustion.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to include commit 09040baf8779ad880e0e0d0ea10e57aa929ef3ab or later versions that fix the TX ring flushing logic in the bcmasp driver.

How to confirm the fix worked

Verify the kernel source includes the fix commit; test bringing interface down and check for memory leaks using tools like kmemleak.

Typical attack path

1. Obtain local access to the system
2. Identify and bring down the affected network interface repeatedly
3. Observe memory usage increase and potential corruption

How to detect it

Look in system logs for repeated interface down events on bcmasp devices; monitor memory usage patterns; use kernel memory debugging tools to detect leaks.

What your security team should do

• Prioritize kernel updates on systems using bcmasp driver
• Monitor for interface down events in logs
• Apply patches from stable kernel trees