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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.7

CVE-2021-23133 json

Linux Kernel sctp_destroy_sock race condition

published 2021-04-22 5 y ago modified 2026-07-30 3 mo ago also EUVD-2021-10251

cvss
6.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 41%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A race condition in Linux kernel SCTP sockets (net/sctp/socket.c) before 5.12-rc8 can lead to kernel privilege escalation from the context of a network service or an unprivileged process. If sctp_destroy_sock is called without sock_net(sk)->sctp.addr_wq_lock then an element is removed from the auto_asconf_splist list without any proper locking. This can be exploited by an attacker with network service privileges to escalate to root or from the context of an unprivileged user directly if a BPF_CGROUP_INET_SOCK_CREATE is attached which denies creation of some SCTP socket.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Kernel Linux Kernel 5.12-rc8
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.10.38-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-23133

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-147.151
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-77.86
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1106.113
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1051.53
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1046.49
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1046.48
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1094.96
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1041.42

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-23133

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-348.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:4356RHSA-2021:4140

  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 4.12.14-150.75.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 4.12.14-150.75.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE Live Patching 15 +3 more 4.12.14-150.75.1
  • kernel-vanilla SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 4.12.14-150.75.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15-LTSS +1 more 4.12.14-150.75.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.74.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.74.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +2 more 4.12.14-122.74.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:2577-1SUSE-SU-2021:2460-1SUSE-SU-2021:2453-1SUSE-SU-2021:2421-1SUSE-SU-2021:2387-1SUSE-SU-2021:2384-1

  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.14.6-1.4
  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 6.6.17-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10728-1openSUSE-SU-2024:13704-1

  • kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.10.78.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-6530

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

  • linux Arch Linux 5.12.4.arch1-1
  • linux-zen Arch Linux 5.12.4.zen1-1
  • linux-hardened Arch Linux 5.11.21.hardened1-1
  • linux-lts Arch Linux 5.10.37-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1958AVG-1959AVG-1960AVG-1961

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-23133 updated cvss 7.0

kernel: Race condition in sctp_destroy_sock list_del

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-348.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-348.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-348.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-348.el8, kernel 4.18.0-348.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-348.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-348.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-348.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-348.el8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4356
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-348.rt7.130.el8, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4140
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.47% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 41% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • openwall.com https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/18/2 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • Linux Kernel Linux Kernel

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.