Affected: Linux, Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP, Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP, Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

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

ipv6: Fix soft lockups in fib6_select_path under high next hop churn

Soft lockups have been observed on a cluster of Linux-based edge routers located in a highly dynamic environment. Using the `bird` service, these routers continuously update BGP-advertised routes due to frequently changing nexthop destinations, while also managing significant IPv6 traffic. The lockups occur during the traversal of the multipath circular linked-list in the `fib6_select_path` function, particularly while iterating through the siblings in the list. The issue typically arises when the nodes of the linked list are unexpectedly deleted concurrently on a different core—indicated by their 'next' and 'previous' elements pointing back to the node itself and their reference count dropping to zero. This results in an infinite loop, leading to a soft lockup that triggers a system panic via the watchdog timer.

Apply RCU primitives in the problematic code sections to resolve the issue. Where necessary, update the references to fib6_siblings to annotate or use the RCU APIs.

Include a test script that reproduces the issue. The script periodically updates the routing table while generating a heavy load of outgoing IPv6 traffic through multiple iperf3 clients. It consistently induces infinite soft lockups within a couple of minutes.

Kernel log:

0 [ffffbd13003e8d30] machine_kexec at ffffffff8ceaf3eb 1 [ffffbd13003e8d90] __crash_kexec a…