medium 5.5

CVE-2021-47169 json

serial: rp2: use 'request_firmware' instead of 'request_firmware_nowait'

published 2024-03-25 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33817

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 13%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

In 'rp2_probe', the driver registers 'rp2_uart_interrupt' then calls 'rp2_fw_cb' through 'request_firmware_nowait'. In 'rp2_fw_cb', if the firmware don't exists, function just return without initializing ports of 'rp2_card'. But now the interrupt handler function has been registered, and when an interrupt comes, 'rp2_uart_interrupt' may access those ports then causing NULL pointer dereference or other bugs.

Because the driver does some initialization work in 'rp2_fw_cb', in order to make the driver ready to handle interrupts, 'request_firmware' should be used instead of asynchronous 'request_firmware_nowait'.

This report reveals it:

INFO: trying to register non-static key. the code is fine but needs lockdep annotation. turning off the locking correctness validator. CPU: 2 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/2 Not tainted 4.19.177-gdba4159c14ef-dirty #45 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.12.0-59- gc9ba5276e321-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <IRQ> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:77 [inline] dump_stack+0xec/0x156 lib/dump_stack.c:118 assign_lock_key kernel/locking/lockdep.c:727 [inline] register_lock_class+0x14e5/0x1ba0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:753 __lock_acquire+0x187/0x3750 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3303 lock_acquire+0x124/0x340 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3907 __raw_spin_lock include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:142 [inline] _raw_spin_lock+0x32/0x50 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:144 spin_lock include/linux/spinlock.h:329 [inline] rp2_ch_interrupt drivers/tty/serial/rp2.c:466 [inline] rp2_asic_interrupt.isra.9+0x15d/0x990 drivers/tty/serial/rp2.c:493 rp2_uart_interrupt+0x49/0xe0 drivers/tty/serial/rp2.c:504 __handle_irq_event_percpu+0xfb/0x770 kernel/irq/handle.c:149 handle_irq_event_percpu+0x79/0x150 kernel/irq/handle.c:189 handle_irq_event+0xac/0x140 kernel/irq/handle.c:206 handle_fasteoi_irq+0x232/0x5c0 kernel/irq/chip.c:725 generic_handle_irq_desc include/linux/irqdesc.h:155 [inline] handle_irq+0x230/0x3a0 arch/x86/kernel/irq_64.c:87 do_IRQ+0xa7/0x1e0 arch/x86/kernel/irq.c:247 common_interrupt+0xf/0xf arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:670 </IRQ> RIP: 0010:native_safe_halt+0x28/0x30 arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:61 Code: 00 00 55 be 04 00 00 00 48 c7 c7 00 c2 2f 8c 48 89 e5 e8 fb 31 e7 f8 8b 05 75 af 8d 03 85 c0 7e 07 0f 00 2d 8a 61 65 00 fb f4 <5d> c3 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 e5 41 57 41 56 41 RSP: 0018:ffff88806b71fcc8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffffde RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffffff8bde7e48 RCX: ffffffff88a21285 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: ffffffff8c2fc200 RBP: ffff88806b71fcc8 R08: fffffbfff185f840 R09: fffffbfff185f840 R10: 0000000000000001 R11: fffffbfff185f840 R12: 0000000000000002 R13: ffffffff8bea18a0 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 arch_safe_halt arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt.h:94 [inline] default_idle+0x6f/0x360 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:557 arch_cpu_idle+0xf/0x20 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:548 default_idle_call+0x3b/0x60 kernel/sched/idle.c:93 cpuidle_idle_call kernel/sched/idle.c:153 [inline] do_idle+0x2ab/0x3c0 kernel/sched/idle.c:263 cpu_startup_entry+0xcb/0xe0 kernel/sched/idle.c:369 start_secondary+0x3b8/0x4e0 arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c:271 secondary_startup_64+0xa4/0xb0 arch/x86/kernel/head_64.S:243 BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000010 PGD 8000000056d27067 P4D 8000000056d27067 PUD 56d28067 PMD 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 2 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/2 Not tainted 4.19.177-gdba4159c14ef-dirty #45 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.12.0-59- gc9ba5276e321-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:readl arch/x86/include/asm/io.h:59 [inline] RIP: 0010:rp2_ch_interrupt drivers/tty/serial/rp2.c:472 [inline] RIP: 0010:rp2_asic_interrupt.isra.9+0x181/0x990 drivers/tty/serial/rp2.c: 493 Co ---truncated---

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 3 links 8

Linux Linux 4.4.271, 4.9.271, 4.14.235, 4.19.193, 5.4.124, 5.10.42, 5.12.9, 5.13

debian ubuntu suse

linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.14.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47169

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-2021-47169

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-2024:1870-1 SUSE-SU-2024:1646-1 SUSE-SU-2024:1643-1 SUSE-SU-2024:1489-1 SUSE-SU-2024:1465-1 SUSE-SU-2024:1454-1

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-2021-47169 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 4.4

kernel: serial: rp2: use 'request_firmware' instead of 'request_firmware_nowait'

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 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 (2024-03-25)

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	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

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2021-47169
NVD CVE-2021-47169

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.

Summary