PSOD #GP Exception 13 in Vmxnet3VMKDevClearMemoryRegions on ESXi 9.1.0

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• An ESXi 9.1.0 host experiences a Purple Screen of Death (PSOD) with a #GP Exception 13.
  
  
• The backtrace displayed on the PSOD screen includes the following functions:
  
  
  • DLM_free
  • Heap_Free
  • Vmxnet3VMKDevClearMemoryRegions
  • Vmxnet3VMKDev_Enable
  • UWVMKPrivateSyscallUnpackVmxnet3Enable
• This issue is typically triggered during VMXNET3 virtual-NIC state changes, such as powering a virtual machine on/off or connecting/disconnecting a network interface.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 9.1.0

Cause

The PSOD is caused by corruption in the vmxnet3Heap heap memory. A buffer overflow occurs when a write to a chunk exceeds its boundary, overwriting the prev_foot of the subsequent chunk

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESXi 9.1.1.

Action: Upgrade the affected ESXi host(s) to version 9.1.1 or later.