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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2021-47162 in the critical feed json

tipc: skb_linearize the head skb when reassembling msgs

published 2024-03-25 2 y ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33810

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 55%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

tipc: skb_linearize the head skb when reassembling msgs

It's not a good idea to append the frag skb to a skb's frag_list if the frag_list already has skbs from elsewhere, such as this skb was created by pskb_copy() where the frag_list was cloned (all the skbs in it were skb_get'ed) and shared by multiple skbs.

However, the new appended frag skb should have been only seen by the current skb. Otherwise, it will cause use after free crashes as this appended frag skb are seen by multiple skbs but it only got skb_get called once.

The same thing happens with a skb updated by pskb_may_pull() with a skb_cloned skb. Li Shuang has reported quite a few crashes caused by this when doing testing over macvlan devices:

[] kernel BUG at net/core/skbuff.c:1970! [] Call Trace: [] skb_clone+0x4d/0xb0 [] macvlan_broadcast+0xd8/0x160 [macvlan] [] macvlan_process_broadcast+0x148/0x150 [macvlan] [] process_one_work+0x1a7/0x360 [] worker_thread+0x30/0x390

[] kernel BUG at mm/usercopy.c:102! [] Call Trace: [] __check_heap_object+0xd3/0x100 [] __check_object_size+0xff/0x16b [] simple_copy_to_iter+0x1c/0x30 [] __skb_datagram_iter+0x7d/0x310 [] __skb_datagram_iter+0x2a5/0x310 [] skb_copy_datagram_iter+0x3b/0x90 [] tipc_recvmsg+0x14a/0x3a0 [tipc] [] ____sys_recvmsg+0x91/0x150 [] ___sys_recvmsg+0x7b/0xc0

[] kernel BUG at mm/slub.c:305! [] Call Trace: [] <IRQ> [] kmem_cache_free+0x3ff/0x400 [] __netif_receive_skb_core+0x12c/0xc40 [] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0x12e/0x270 [] netif_receive_skb_internal+0x3d/0xb0 [] ? get_rx_page_info+0x8e/0xa0 [be2net] [] be_poll+0x6ef/0xd00 [be2net] [] ? irq_exit+0x4f/0x100 [] net_rx_action+0x149/0x3b0

...

This patch is to fix it by linearizing the head skb if it has frag_list set in tipc_buf_append(). Note that we choose to do this before calling skb_unshare(), as __skb_linearize() will avoid skb_copy(). Also, we can not just drop the frag_list either as the early time.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.2, 4.3, 4.4.271, 4.9.271, 4.14.235, 4.19.193, 5.4.124, 5.10.42, 5.12.9, 5.13
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.14.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47162

  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-151.157
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-80.90
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1109.116
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1054.57
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1049.53
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1097.99
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1044.46
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1055.57

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47162

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 4.12.14-122.219.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.219.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +2 more 4.12.14-122.219.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.219.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.188.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.188.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.188.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.188.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:0035-1SUSE-SU-2024:4367-1SUSE-SU-2024:2184-1SUSE-SU-2024:1983-1SUSE-SU-2024:1979-1SUSE-SU-2024:1870-1

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-2021-47162 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: tipc: skb_linearize the head skb when reassembling msgs

  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Virtualization migration-toolkit-virtualization/mtv-virt-v2v-rhel9, migration-toolkit-virtualization/mtv-deep-inspection-rhel9 Red Hat Certification Program for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rhcertification/redhat-certification-baremetal, rhcertification/redhat-certification-system-ai-9, rhcertification/redhat-certification-system-ai-10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rhel9/rhel-bootc, rhel9-eus/rhel-9.4-bootc, rhel9-eus/rhel-9.6-bootc, rhel9-eus/rhel-9.8-bootc Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 rhel10/rhel-bootc, rhel10-eus/rhel-10.0-bootc, rhel10-eus/rhel-10.2-bootc Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift4/driver-toolkit-rhel9, openshift4/ose-ironic-machine-os-downloader-rhel9
    +1 more products
    Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift5/driver-toolkit-rhel9, openshift5/ose-ironic-machine-os-downloader-rhel9
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 rhosp-rhel9/openstack-nova-compute, rhosp-rhel9/openstack-nova-libvirt, rhosp-rhel9/openstack-nova-compute-ironic
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0 rhoso/openstack-nova-compute-rhel9
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • 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 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

0.74% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 55% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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.