SLES12 SP1 crash in count_subheaders() with Kernel 3.12.74-60.64.40

This document (7021030) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)

Situation

After updating to the last non-LTSS kernel, which is 3.12.74-60.64.40.1, under rare cases you may
experience Kernel crashes with the following stack traces logged.

[  262.979691] BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at 0000000100000000
[  262.979759] IP: [<ffffffff81212d11>] count_subheaders+0x11/0x70
[  262.979807] PGD a90a5067 PUD 0 
[  262.979835] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP 
[  262.979863] Modules linked in: xt_pkttype xt_LOG xt_limit af_packet iscsi_ibft iscsi_boot_sysfs ip6t_REJECT xt_tcpudp nf_conntrack_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv6 ip6table_raw ipt_REJECT iptable_raw xt_CT iptable_filter ip6table_mangle nf_conntrack_netbios_ns nf_conntrack_broadcast nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 ip_tables xt_conntrack nf_conntrack ip6table_filter ip6_tables x_tables vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vsock coretemp dm_mod crct10dif_pclmul crc32_pclmul crc32c_intel ghash_clmulni_intel ppdev pcspkr aesni_intel vmw_balloon aes_x86_64 lrw gf128mul glue_helper ablk_helper cryptd serio_raw mptctl vmw_vmci vmxnet3 i2c_piix4 shpchp battery parport_pc parport ac button processor btrfs sr_mod cdrom xor ata_generic raid6_pq sd_mod ata_piix ahci libahci vmwgfx mptspi scsi_transport_spi mptscsih mptbase ttm drm
[  262.981297]  libata floppy sg scsi_mod autofs4
[  262.981333] Supported: Yes
[  262.982348] CPU: 1 PID: 6 Comm: kworker/u4:0 Not tainted 3.12.74-60.64.40-default #1
[  262.983381] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 09/17/2015
[  262.985522] Workqueue: netns cleanup_net
[  262.986608] task: ffff8801347b4180 ti: ffff8801347b2000 task.ti: ffff8801347b2000
[  262.987734] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff81212d11>]  [<ffffffff81212d11>] count_subheaders+0x11/0x70
[  262.988868] RSP: 0018:ffff8801347b3d80  EFLAGS: 00010206
[  262.989981] RAX: ffffffffa04aa130 RBX: 0000000100000000 RCX: ffff880128c18a00
[  262.991133] RDX: ffff8800a2785030 RSI: ffffffffa04ad020 RDI: 0000000100000000
[  262.992265] RBP: ffff8801347b3e10 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 000000000000023c
[  262.993406] R10: 00000000000fb188 R11: 00000000000fb188 R12: ffffffffa04ad018
[  262.994584] R13: ffffffffa04ad020 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000080
[  262.995737] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88013fd00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[  262.996920] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 000000008005003b
[  262.998089] CR2: 0000000100000000 CR3: 000000009de28000 CR4: 00000000000407e0
[  262.999353] Stack:
[  263.000567]  ffff8800a58f4240 ffff8801347b3e10 ffffffffa04ad018 ffffffff812135dc
[  263.001793]  ffff8800a2785000 ffff8801347b3e10 ffffffffa04ad018 ffffffffa04ad020
[  263.003062]  ffffffffa04aa14a ffff8800a2785000 ffffffff81434cf9 ffffffffa04ad000
[  263.004559] Call Trace:
[  263.005814]  [<ffffffff812135dc>] unregister_sysctl_table+0x1c/0x80
[  263.007179]  [<ffffffffa04aa14a>] log_net_exit+0x1a/0x40 [xt_LOG]
[  263.008571]  [<ffffffff81434cf9>] ops_exit_list.isra.1+0x39/0x70
[  263.009937]  [<ffffffff81435528>] cleanup_net+0x108/0x1e0
[  263.011285]  [<ffffffff81073f94>] process_one_work+0x174/0x460
[  263.012555]  [<ffffffff81074c4a>] worker_thread+0x11a/0x3c0
[  263.013844]  [<ffffffff8107b5b4>] kthread+0xb4/0xc0
[  263.015135]  [<ffffffff81532858>] ret_from_fork+0x58/0x90
[  263.016350] Code: 8b 47 30 48 8b 40 e0 48 83 78 18 00 0f 95 c0 0f b6 c0 c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 54 48 85 ff 55 53 48 89 fb 74 47 <48> 83 3f 00 74 41 31 ed 45 31 e4 eb 13 66 90 48 83 c3 40 e8 d7 
[  263.020251] RIP  [<ffffffff81212d11>] count_subheaders+0x11/0x70
[  263.021458]  RSP <ffff8801347b3d80>
[  263.022644] CR2: 0000000100000000

Resolution

This has been fixed in Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) Kernel update 3.12.74-60.64.45 and later.

Additional Information

For customers without LTSS a possible workaround is to downgrade to Kernel 3.12.69-60.64.35.1.

Disclaimer

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