medium 5.5

CVE-2021-47572 json

net: nexthop: fix null pointer dereference when IPv6 is not enabled

published 2024-05-24 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-34574

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 10%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

When we try to add an IPv6 nexthop and IPv6 is not enabled (!CONFIG_IPV6) we'll hit a NULL pointer dereference[1] in the error path of nh_create_ipv6() due to calling ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release. The bug has been present since the beginning of IPv6 nexthop gateway support. Commit 1aefd3de7bc6 ("ipv6: Add fib6_nh_init and release to stubs") tells us that only fib6_nh_init has a dummy stub because fib6_nh_release should not be called if fib6_nh_init returns an error, but the commit below added a call to ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release in its error path. To fix it return the dummy stub's -EAFNOSUPPORT error directly without calling ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release in nh_create_ipv6()'s error path.

[1] Output is a bit truncated, but it clearly shows the error. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000000000 #PF: supervisor instruction fetch in kernel modede #PF: error_code(0x0010) - not-present pagege PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0010 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 4 PID: 638 Comm: ip Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.16.0-rc1+ #446 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-4.fc34 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:0x0 Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at RIP 0xffffffffffffffd6. RSP: 0018:ffff888109f5b8f0 EFLAGS: 00010286^Ac RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888109f5ba28 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff8881008a2860 RBP: ffff888109f5b9d8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffff888109f5b978 R11: ffff888109f5b948 R12: 00000000ffffff9f R13: ffff8881008a2a80 R14: ffff8881008a2860 R15: ffff8881008a2840 FS: 00007f98de70f100(0000) GS:ffff88822bf00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffffffffffffd6 CR3: 0000000100efc000 CR4: 00000000000006e0 Call Trace: <TASK> nh_create_ipv6+0xed/0x10c rtm_new_nexthop+0x6d7/0x13f3 ? check_preemption_disabled+0x3d/0xf2 ? lock_is_held_type+0xbe/0xfd rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x23f/0x26a ? check_preemption_disabled+0x3d/0xf2 ? rtnl_calcit.isra.0+0x147/0x147 netlink_rcv_skb+0x61/0xb2 netlink_unicast+0x100/0x187 netlink_sendmsg+0x37f/0x3a0 ? netlink_unicast+0x187/0x187 sock_sendmsg_nosec+0x67/0x9b ____sys_sendmsg+0x19d/0x1f9 ? copy_msghdr_from_user+0x4c/0x5e ? rcu_read_lock_any_held+0x2a/0x78 ___sys_sendmsg+0x6c/0x8c ? asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x12/0x20 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0xd9/0x102 ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x69/0x99 __sys_sendmsg+0x50/0x6e do_syscall_64+0xcb/0xf2 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae RIP: 0033:0x7f98dea28914 Code: 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 48 c7 c0 ff ff ff ff eb b5 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 48 8d 05 e9 5d 0c 00 8b 00 85 c0 75 13 b8 2e 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 54 c3 0f 1f 00 41 54 41 89 d4 55 48 89 f5 53 RSP: 002b:00007fff859f5e68 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e2e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00000000619cb810 RCX: 00007f98dea28914 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007fff859f5ed0 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000008 R10: fffffffffffffce6 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000001 R13: 000055c0097ae520 R14: 000055c0097957fd R15: 00007fff859f63a0 </TASK> Modules linked in: bridge stp llc bonding virtio_net

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 4 links 4

Linux Linux 5.4.163, 5.10.83, 5.15.6, 5.16

debian ubuntu red hat suse

linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.15.15-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47572

linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-100.113
linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1066.69
linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1065.69
linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1015.16
linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1056.58
linux-azure Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1070.73
linux-gkeop Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1034.35
linux-raspi Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1053.60

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47572

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 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

dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP5, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP5, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 +5 more 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1
kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 SUSE-SU-2024:2394-1 SUSE-SU-2024:2372-1

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-2021-47572 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 4.4

kernel: net: nexthop: fix null pointer dereference when IPv6 is not enabled

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 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
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 (2024-09-10)

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10% 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-2021-47572
NVD CVE-2021-47572

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