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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-46966 json

ACPI: custom_method: fix potential use-after-free issue

published 2024-02-27 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33614

cvss
7.8
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 13%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ACPI: custom_method: fix potential use-after-free issue

In cm_write(), buf is always freed when reaching the end of the function. If the requested count is less than table.length, the allocated buffer will be freed but subsequent calls to cm_write() will still try to access it.

Remove the unconditional kfree(buf) at the end of the function and set the buf to NULL in the -EINVAL error path to match the rest of function.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.4.269, 4.9.269, 4.14.233, 4.19.191, 5.3, 5.4, 5.4.118, 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.10.38-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46966

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-151.157
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-77.86
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1109.116
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1051.53
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1046.49
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1097.99
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1041.42
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1051.53

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46966

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-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +2 more 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1870-1SUSE-SU-2024:1646-1SUSE-SU-2024:1643-1SUSE-SU-2024:0926-1SUSE-SU-2024:0857-1SUSE-SU-2024:0856-1

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-2021-46966 updated cvss 6.7

kernel: ACPI: custom_method: fix potential use-after-free issue

  • 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 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 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
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
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.