Unity Linux 20.1050e Security Update: kernel (UTSA-2026-005167)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 296942

Synopsis

The Unity Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2026-005167 advisory.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

eth: bnxt: always recalculate features after XDP clearing, fix null-deref

Recalculate features when XDP is detached.

Before:
# ip li set dev eth0 xdp obj xdp_dummy.bpf.o sec xdp # ip li set dev eth0 xdp off # ethtool -k eth0 | grep gro rx-gro-hw: off [requested on]

After:
# ip li set dev eth0 xdp obj xdp_dummy.bpf.o sec xdp # ip li set dev eth0 xdp off # ethtool -k eth0 | grep gro rx-gro-hw: on

The fact that HW-GRO doesn't get re-enabled automatically is just a minor annoyance. The real issue is that the features will randomly come back during another reconfiguration which just happens to invoke netdev_update_features(). The driver doesn't handle reconfiguring two things at a time very robustly.

Starting with commit 98ba1d931f61 (bnxt_en: Fix RSS logic in
__bnxt_reserve_rings()) we only reconfigure the RSS hash table if the effective number of Rx rings has changed. If HW-GRO is enabled effective number of rings is 2x what user sees.
So if we are in the bad state, with HW-GRO re-enablement pending after XDP off, and we lower the rings by / 2 - the HW-GRO rings doing 2x and the ethtool -L doing / 2 may cancel each other out, and the:

if (old_rx_rings != bp->hw_resc.resv_rx_rings &&

condition in __bnxt_reserve_rings() will be false.
The RSS map won't get updated, and we'll crash with:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000168 RIP: 0010:__bnxt_hwrm_vnic_set_rss+0x13a/0x1a0 bnxt_hwrm_vnic_rss_cfg_p5+0x47/0x180
__bnxt_setup_vnic_p5+0x58/0x110 bnxt_init_nic+0xb72/0xf50
__bnxt_open_nic+0x40d/0xab0 bnxt_open_nic+0x2b/0x60 ethtool_set_channels+0x18c/0x1d0

As we try to access a freed ring.

The issue is present since XDP support was added, really, but prior to commit 98ba1d931f61 (bnxt_en: Fix RSS logic in
__bnxt_reserve_rings()) it wasn't causing major issues.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kernel package.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?adf2715e

http://www.nessus.org/u?4cc9a553

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21682

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 296942

File Name: unity_linux_UTSA-2026-005167.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Published: 1/27/2026

Updated: 1/27/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.6

Temporal Score: 3.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-21682

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.8

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/UOS-Server/release, Host/UOS-Server/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/28/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/31/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-21682