** Summary changed: - [intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e kernel places Intel gigE chipsets at risk + [intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk
** Description changed: - The e1000e driver in 2.6.27 (not tested with 2.6.26, but it was absolutely fine with whatever driver was used by 2.6.24) seems to support writing to the LAN chip's firmware, and if it follows the behaviour of the OpenBSD driver[0] then the firmware is mapped as writable the entire time the driver is loaded. - As has happened to my Thinkpad X300 and several other people[1][2], it seems that other kernel bugs which trash memory can end up spewing nonsense into the LAN firmware and thus rewriting it with something that isn't the code required to drive a LAN port. - There is no simple recovery strategy from this, and Intel's downloadable tools (IABUTIL.EXE) will not repair it, and worse, they will destroy the firmware enough that the device will no longer enumerate on the PCI bus. Intel subsequently say that these tools are only for use with Desktop parts and the fact that they run at all on Laptop parts is a bug[3]. + In some circumstances it appears possible for the 2.6.27-rc kernels to corrupt the NVRAM used by some Intel network parts to store data such as MAC addresses. + This is limited to the new e1000e driver, and reports have only appeared from users of "82566 and 82567 based LAN parts (ich8 and ich9)" (to quote Intel). The reports seem to be isolated to laptops, but it is not clear if this is because desktop/server parts are not vulnerable, or if use cases simply increase the chances of laptop users being hit. - I am returning my laptop to Lenovo to have the motherboard replaced, and - without a strategy to be able to repair the firmware myself, I am very - much reluctant to test this any further when I get the machine back, as - if I hit the bug again I will be once again left with broken hardware. + Once this corruption has occurred, recovery may be possible via a BIOS + update, but may well require replacement of the hardware. Use of Intel's + IABUTIL.EXE is strongly discouraged, as it will worsen the problem to + the point where the network part will no longer appear on the PCI bus. - [0] http://www.blahonga.org/~art/rant.html (search for "em0") - [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00360.html - [2] http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11382 - [3]http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00398.html + (this is a new description, the original one was based on too much + guesswork. Below are the URLs originally referenced) + + http://www.blahonga.org/~art/rant.html (search for "em0") + http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00360.html + http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg00398.html -- [intrepid] 2.6.27 e1000e driver places Intel ICH8 and ICH9 gigE chipsets at risk https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/263555 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
