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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.7

CVE-2021-28972 json

In drivers/pci/hotplug/rpadlpar_sysfs.c in the Linux kernel through 5.11.8, the RPA PCI Hotplug driver has a user-tolerable buffer overflow…

published 2021-03-22 5 y ago modified 2026-10-08 31 d ago also EUVD-2021-15619

cvss
6.7
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.8%
EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 57%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In drivers/pci/hotplug/rpadlpar_sysfs.c in the Linux kernel through 5.11.8, the RPA PCI Hotplug driver has a user-tolerable buffer overflow when writing a new device name to the driver from userspace, allowing userspace to write data to the kernel stack frame directly. This occurs because add_slot_store and remove_slot_store mishandle drc_name '\0' termination, aka CID-cc7a0bb058b8.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.4.263, 4.14.227, 5.4.108, 5.10.26, 5.11.9
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.10.26-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-28972

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-144.148
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-74.83
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1103.110
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1049.51
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1044.47
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1044.46
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1092.94
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1040.41

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-28972

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-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP3, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 +2 more 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-preempt SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP3, SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2.18.2.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1977-1SUSE-SU-2021:1975-1SUSE-SU-2021:1625-1SUSE-SU-2021:1624-1SUSE-SU-2021:1623-1SUSE-SU-2021:1617-1

  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-preempt openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:1977-1openSUSE-SU-2021:1975-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0758-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0532-1

  • kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.10.78.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-6543

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 5.11.9.arch1-1
  • linux-hardened Arch Linux 5.11.9.hardened1-1
  • linux-zen Arch Linux 5.11.9.zen1-1
  • linux-lts Arch Linux 5.10.26-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1716AVG-1717AVG-1718AVG-1719

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-2021-28972 updated cvss 6.7

kernel: Buffer overflow in hotplug/rpadlpar_sysfs.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-alt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +4 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-core, kernel-tools, python3-perf, +17 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-trace-kvm Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +6 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +81 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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
31 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.80% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 57% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 6.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input
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.