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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2021-46937 json

mm/damon/dbgfs: fix 'struct pid' leaks in 'dbgfs_target_ids_write()'

published 2024-02-27 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33585

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/damon/dbgfs: fix 'struct pid' leaks in 'dbgfs_target_ids_write()'

DAMON debugfs interface increases the reference counts of 'struct pid's for targets from the 'target_ids' file write callback ('dbgfs_target_ids_write()'), but decreases the counts only in DAMON monitoring termination callback ('dbgfs_before_terminate()').

Therefore, when 'target_ids' file is repeatedly written without DAMON monitoring start/termination, the reference count is not decreased and therefore memory for the 'struct pid' cannot be freed. This commit fixes this issue by decreasing the reference counts when 'target_ids' is written.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.13, 5.16
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.15.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46937

  • kernel RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • bpftool RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • kernel-core RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • kernel-tools RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • python3-perf RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • kernel-modules RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 9 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1

red hat advisories RHSA-2022:8267

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-2021-46937 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: fix 'struct pid' leaks in 'dbgfs_target_ids_write()'

  • 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-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-kvm, kernel-rt-core, kernel-rt-modules, kernel-rt-debug-kvm, kernel-rt-debug-core, +12 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) perf 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-devel-matched 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debug-devel-matched 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-zfcpdump-devel-matched 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) kernel 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, bpftool 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-core 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-tools 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, python3-perf 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, kernel-modules 5.14.0-162.6.1.el9_1, +14 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:8267

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
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-668 Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere
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.